1. On more than one occasion, aquaculture was highlighted by policy-makers and development agents as an important sector for Africa’s economic development. Several FAO fora including the Fourth Session of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa, CIFA, which was held in Blantyre, Malawi, about two decades ago; the 1999 Africa Regional Aquaculture Review in Accra, Ghana; the Eleventh Session of CIFA held in 2000 in Abuja, Nigeria; the Twenty-fourth Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) which was held in Rome in February 2001; and the Technical Consultation on Legal Frameworks and Economic Policy Instruments for Sustainable Commercial Aquaculture in Africa South of the Sahara which took place in Arusha, Tanzania, in December 2001, emphasized the need to develop sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa and to optimize the benefits from this form of aquaculture. FAO was also urged, in the course of promoting aquaculture, not to overlook those countries that historically did not practice aquaculture but which had suitable conditions for its development.
2. Recognizing the potential of commercial aquaculture in Zambia and Malawi as well as the catalytic role of commercial aquaculture in food security, hunger reduction and poverty alleviation through economic growth and employment generation in these two countries, and in order to partially respond to the needs of these two Member countries in the development of sustainable commercial aquaculture, FAO, the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the Government of the Republic of Malawi convened a Workshop on the Promotion of Sustainable Commercial Aquaculture in Zambia and Malawi in Lusaka, Zambia, from 2 to 4 October 2002.
3. The Workshop was attended by 11 delegates from Malawi, 21 from Zambia and three from FAO. The delegates included representatives from the aquaculture farming and allied (hatchery, feed, processing) industries, the banking sector, the public sector (policy-makers in fisheries and aquaculture), as well as intergovernmental organizations. The list of participants is provided in Appendix B. The documents which were distributed before the Consultation are listed in Appendix C.
