Governing Indonesia’s Sovereign Blue Bond: Tracing the Translation of International Principles into Practice

Background Blue bonds have emerged as instruments for financing ocean sustainability; however, their credibility depends on how sustainability principles are translated into institutional practice. The present study examines the governance of Indonesia’s Sovereign Blue Bond by assessing how the four core components of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) principles are operationalized within the national public financial systems. Methods A qualitative case study was conducted, combining document analysis with semi-structured interviews with five informants from institutions responsible for issuance, expenditure tagging, treasury management, program implementation, and development planning. The institutional logics theory was employed to classify governance arrangements according to symbolic and material carriers, including actors, routines, and artifacts and to explain variations in implementation across components. Results The findings indicate that the use of proceeds and management of proceeds were relatively institutionalized through established government systems, including budget tagging, KRISNA (the State General Treasury Account), and SPAN/SAKTI. In addition, traceability was maintained by matching an equivalent amount to realized eligible expenditures. In contrast, project selection and reporting remained dependent on interpersonal coordination and discretionary administrative practices : selection relied on clarification processes carried out by individual focal points, creating vulnerabilities to personnel turnover, while reporting depended on non-standardized inputs from line ministries and Bappenas and relied partly on predicted ex-ante impacts. Conclusions These findings suggest that strengthening sovereign blue bond governance requires shifting routines from individual actors to institutional artifacts, through an integrated selection system that reduces dependence on focal points and standardized reporting inputs across contributing institutions. The study contributes to the sovereign blue finance literature by showing that governance credibility depends on the extent to which sustainability requirements are institutionalized in existing public finance systems rather than sustained through individual coordination.