The provisions of the Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (PFRS) incorporate best practices for sustainable fisheries management and responsible aquaculture development which have been identified as priorities by stakeholders. The rational implementation of the PFRS entails identification of user-friendly appropriate strategies that would facilitate alignment of national and regional fisheries and aquaculture policies to these provisions of the PFRS.

This document has been developed as a complementary document to the parent PFRS to provide guidance for the implementation of the PFRS. It therefore describes the criteria/parameters for alignment of national and regional policies and strategies to the provisions of the PFRS, the indicators to monitor the progress of alignment of national and regional policies to the PFRS, implementation as well as the mechanism to support or facilitate its implementation of the PFRS.  The Guide also includes indicators to measure medium and long-term impact of the anticipated reforms in the sector that are gendered by this pan African policy and other instruments.

The Guide has been developed through consultative processes involving stakeholders that included African Union Member States (AU MS), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), specialized regional Institutions in fisheries and aquaculture, NSAs, members of the AFRM, development partners, individual experts and key institutions. Towards the formulation of these guidelines, expert consultative meetings were organized in Kampala, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya that culminated in a broader consultative Think Tank meeting in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire that validated the contents for operationalizing the PFRS.