Technical Report of the Workshop on the Establishment of a Continental Non-State Actors Coordination Platform in Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector in Africa

The Non-State Actors (NSAs) play crucial roles in the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Africa. They maintain very intimate relationships with the wider fishing communities. At national levels, the non-state organizations established to seek and protect the interest of the fisher folks, but also perform specific functions in areas such as advocacy, processing and women’s affairs, boat building, fishing, fish farming, cooperatives, amongst others. Few of these Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have also entered into various arrangements with the national fisheries administration that have earned them the recognition and perhaps institutional privilege and mandate to participate in the co-management of the sector. Arguably, their most influential role has been to act as pressure groups on the national fisheries administration to conduct affairs transparently and, more importantly, to secure the interests of the small-scale fisheries.