From 24 to 27 March 2014, Ministers of Fisheries from across Africa will meet in Durban (South Africa) to agree on a Pan African Fisheries Policy and Reform Strategy. This will be the second meeting of the Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture, CAMFA. The development of this strategy document has been led by a five-year initiative, the Partnership for African Fisheries program of NEPAD and the African Union.
During this time some civil society organizations, including some representing the interests of the small-scale fishing sector, have been asked to share their views and expectations for the reform strategy.
However, this consultation has not been comprehensive and has suffered from a lack of information sharing. In order to ensure that African civil society organizations can contribute to national and pan African debates on both the content and implementation of such reform strategy, CAOPA is hosting an open E-discussion, starting on the 6th of January until end February. This will be a bi-lingual discussion, with all content and posts translated simultaneously in French and English.
The aim of this E-discussion is to provide a platform for in-depth discussion on a range of priority issues for the small-scale sector. CAOPA will facilitate the discussion and provide a summary document of the key points, which in turn will be presented prior to the CAMFA meeting.
The E-discussion should also provide an opportunity for participants to respond to the reform strategy when it becomes a public document. Currently, the draft reform strategy and the background documents that have informed the development of the strategy are not available.
Contributors can make their input directly on the CAOPA website, where themes proposed for the discussion are detailed
You can also send an email to the following address
contributions@caopa-africa.org
Your contribution can be accompanied by documents you want to share – press articles, reports, etc
To help with translations, all posts for the discussion will be sent to the moderator who will then translate into French/English before posting on the website.