A high-level meeting with H.E. Professor Alpha Conde, President of the Republic of Guinea and the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki was held on June 2, in Conakry, Guinea to discuss the overall support AUDA-NEPAD has provided to Guinea to reform its fisheries and aquaculture sectors. The meeting also discussed the ongoing preparation of the expert meetings in September 2021 as well as the donor roundtable scheduled for November 2021.

The CEO of AUDA-NEPAD appreciated the transformative leadership role H.E. President Conde has played in making the ongoing reform process in the fisheries sector of Guinea a success. The reform process has so far included:

• In-depth diagnosis of the fishery and aquaculture sectors;
• Development of new fisheries policies;
• New strategy for fisheries and aquaculture;
• An investment plan;
• Development of a programme/projects portfolio;
• Bringing up to standard of the Office of Sanitary Control of Fish and Fisheries Products;
• Definition of a new framework for fighting against illegal and unregulated fishing and the bringing up to standard the office in charge;
• Development of  a new strategy for fisheries research with a new mission;
• Review of fish products value chains and their bottlenecks; and
• New codes for fisheries, aquaculture and inland fisheries.

As part of the reforms, a new organogram for the Ministry of Fisheries has been approved and implemented.

In addition, the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Economy of the Republic of Guinea, with the support of AUDA-NEPAD, held a highly inclusive consultative workshop in preparation for the organisation of a resource mobilisation round table in support of the development of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Guinea. The meeting was held in Conakry, Republic of Guinea, from 3 to 4 June 2021.

The workshop was presided over by H.E Mr Fréderic Loua, Minister of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Maritime Economy, who expressed his appreciation to the AUDA-NEPAD CEO and delegation for the strong and enduring support to the country for reforming the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

In his address to the workshop, Dr Mayaki congratulated the Republic of Guinea authorities in their dedicated commitment to implementing the recommendations resulting from the September 2013 States General of Fisheries and Aquaculture meetings, including the strengthening of the governance of the sector and the organization of the round table of technical and financial partners.

Dr Mayaki appreciated the exceptional leadership of the President, Professor Alpha Conde, who continues to drive the reforms in the sector from the highest level. The CEO further committed AUDA-NEPAD to continuing to support the Ministry by providing both human and technical capacity in the preparation of the resource mobilisation round table and in the definition of a clear implementation strategy with well-defined roles. 

The highly successful deliberations resulted in the identification of seven areas of intervention for project development and an implementation timeline. The workshop participants agreed to organise the resource mobilisation roundtable in 2 phases: i) an Expert Technical meeting will be held from 28-30tSeptember 2021; and ii) A High-Level Resource Mobilisation Roundtable event will be held on 16 November 2021. A task team was also established to drive the preparation and monitoring of activities for implementation of the agreed timeline.

The multi-year collaboration between the Government of the Republic of Guinea and AUDA-NEPAD on the country’s Fisheries and Aquaculture reforms, provides a strong and positive example of the significant role of AUDA-NEPAD as Africa’s Development Agency. The mission was very well appreciated by the Guinean authorities who officially thanked the AUDA-NEPAD for the quality of support rendered.