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.
