• Overview
  • Documents
  • Working Documents
  • Information Documents
  • Case Studies

At the fifteenth Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in 2015, African ministers of environment agreed to “develop a governance strategy, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and regional seas conventions, on oceans and seas in Africa for the effective management of the region’s shared maritime resources”. In the Nairobi Declaration of September 2018 at the 7th special session of AMCEN, member States agreed to “urge African states to promote the growth and development of the regional ocean sector in a sustainable blue economy pathway and support the mainstreaming of aquatic biodiversity in all productive sectors with a view to sustainably harnessing the blue economy.”

In response, the United Nations Environment Programme as the secretariat for AMCEN, supported the holding of the first consultative meeting in Nairobi from 29 to 30 November 2018. The first consultative meeting identified possible elements to be included in the strategy.

As a follow up, a second consultative meeting is planned to be held virtually from 21 – 22 October 2020 in both French and English languages, to further build consensus among member States on the strategy. This meeting will deliberate, among others, on how the strategy can be integrated in existing Africa Union policies and structures including Agenda 2063, the African Integrated Maritime Strategy and Blue Economy Strategy.

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/1: List of Documents

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/2: List of Participants

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/3: Regional Oceans Governance-Making Regional Seas Programmes, Regional Fishery Bodies and Large Marine Ecosystem Mechanisms Work Better Together

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/4: Ocean Policies and Institutional Arrangements for Cross-sectoral Cooperation

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/5: Realizing Integrated Regional Oceans Governance-Summary of Case Studies on Regional Cross-Sectoral Institutional Cooperation and Policy Coherence

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/6: African Ocean Governance Strategic Blueprint

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/7: African Ocean Governance Strategy: Scoping study and gap analysis

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/8: 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/9: Agenda 2063 The Africa We Want

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/10: African Union Commission-Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/11: Cairo Declaration on Management Africa’s Natural Capital for Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/12: Libreville Declaration on Health and Environment in Africa

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/13: Africa Blue Economy Strategy

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/14: Regional Seas Programmes Covering Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/15: Gender Mainstreaming in the Marine and Coastal Management

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/16: The State of Ocean Governance in the Western Indian Ocean (English)

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/16: The State of Ocean Governance in the Western Indian Ocean (French)

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/17: Chair’s summary of the first meeting (English)

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/17 Chair’s summary of the first meeting (French)

UNEP/ASOG/WG.2/INF/18: Report of the first meeting