In the Cairo Declaration on Managing Africa’s Natural Capital for Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, adopted by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) at its fifteenth session, in 2015, African ministers for the 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 on Turning Environmental Policies into Action through Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges in Africa, of September 2018, adopted by AMCEN at its seventh special session, African ministers for the environment 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 to those decisions, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as the provider of secretariat services for AMCEN, carried out
background studies and organized a consultative meeting in November 2018 to assist member States in developing the strategy.