The African workshop was one of three regional consultative workshops carried out as a follow-up to the 2009 inception workshop of the FAO Extra-Budgetary Programme on Fisheries and Aquaculture for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security. The workshops built on the outcomes of the Global Conference on Small-Scale Fisheries held in Bangkok in October 2008 and referred to the recommendations made by the 26th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in March 2009 with regard to the potential development of an international instrument and programme for small-scale fisheries. The purpose of the workshops was to provide guidance on the scope and contents of such an international small-scale fisheries instrument and on the possible priorities and implementation modalities for a global assistance programme. L'atelier africain etait un des trois ateliers consultatifs regionaux faisant suite a l'atelier initial du programme extrabudgetaire sur les peches et l'aquaculture de la FAO pour la reduction de la pauvrete et la securite alimentaire, en 2009. Le but des ateliers etait de fournir des conseils sur la portee et la nature d'un tel instrument international pour le developpement durable des peches artisanales, et sur les eventuelles priorites et modalites de mise en oeuvre d'un programme d'assistance global. Il a gravite autour des presentations plenieres portant sur les principaux themes et les discussions des groupes de travail. L'atelier est convenu qu'un instrument international sur les peches artisanales et un programme apparente seraient des outils importants pour assurer leur durabilite."

Following the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) by the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in June 2014, and in line with Paragraph 13.6 of the SSF Guidelines promoting the development of regional plans of action for their implementation, a regional consultation was held to discuss the implementation of the SSF Guidelines in West and Central Africa. The objective of the consultation was to raise awareness of the important role of the small-scale fisheries sector and how this is addressed in the African Union’s Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (PFRS), the ECOWAS regional fisheries and aquaculture policy (under development with support from the FIRST programme), and the SSF Guidelines. It also provided an opportunity to share experiences and identify actions needed to support and promote small-scale fisheries in the CECAF region.