Think Blue is a first of its kind partnership-based edu-tech platform that accelerates access to ocean education through collaborative methods, strategic partnerships and innovative approaches, including virtually.
Think Blue enhances aggregation of, and access to educational content concerning the oceans, primarily via virtual approaches.
Our vision is a world of informed ocean citizens – people who truly “think blue”.
Our mission is to accelerate access to ocean education, including via innovative approaches.
The platform represents a shift in mindset towards the use of edu-tech products to better prepare current and future generations to steer the planet toward its sustainable development.
Think Blue is powered by Virtual Educa, a twenty-year old educational engagement platform founded by the Organization of American States (OAS) and its member-states in partnership with private sector technology partners focused on education such as Google, Microsoft, Intel, Lego Education, among others. It is considered a PPP aggregating platform.
While prototyped, endorsed and launched in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in partnership with Virtual Educa Foundation, a not for profit charity based in Washington D.C., Think Blue will be formally launch in Bahia, Brazil in June 2018, supporting countries’ blue economy aspirations.
Virtual Educa is an initiative established in 2001 under the auspices of the Organization of the American States (OAS), with the goal of boosting innovation in Education for social transformation and sustainable development, with an emphasis in Latin America and the Caribbean. Virtual Educa operates through an alliance of institutional organizations, cooperation agencies and public and private institutions, gathering the public, corporate, academic and civil society sectors.
The 50th GEF Council Meeting took place on June 7-9, 2016 at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. The Council was preceded by consultations between CSOs and the Council on Monday, June 6th. 32 Council Members represent over 180 countries across the world. At its 50th Meeting, The GEF Council approved a work program of projects and programs that will benefit 83 countries, including 30 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and 21 Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The Council reviewed and endorsed the Caribbean Regional Oceanscape Project, GEF ID #9451 and its component in support of creating access to ocean education, Think Blue.
Twenty-one original OAS members (1948): Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Fourteen subsequent members: Barbados (1967); Trinidad and Tobago (1967); Jamaica (1969); Grenada (1975); Suriname (1977); Dominica (1979); Saint Lucia (1979); Antigua and Barbuda (1981); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981); The Bahamas (1982); St. Kitts and Nevis (1984); Canada (1990); Belize (1991); Guyana (1991).
All 35 independent countries of the Americas have ratified the OAS Charter and belong to the organization. There are also 63 states with OAS permanent observer status.
Think Blue’s Virtual and Open Learning Campus (TBV-OLC) on oceans and the blue economy was formally endorsed on World Ocean Day 2016 by GEF’s Council at their 50th Anniversary Meeting co-chaired by Government of Canada. Grenada, representing the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) block of nations, presented the project
