Mami Wata – Enhancing Marine Management in West Africa through Training and Application

The African Atlantic coast has a combined “Exclusive Economic Zone”, which has a number of hotspots for biodiversity and extensivefishing grounds. These are threatened by overfishing and pollution. Mami Wata provided technical and institutional training-of-trainers and peer-learning based capacity building for national planners and decision-makers dealing with marine and coastal management, in collaboration with regional Centres of Expertise, which will be strengthened and linked into a network to provide long-term knowledge hub functions. Mami Wata built institutional and technical capacity enhancing Abidjan Convention member countries’ abilities to manage their marine and coastal environments in an integrated, ecosystem-based way leading to the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. Mami Wata worked with national pilot projects in Benin, Côte D’Ivoire, Ghana, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegals, and support transboundary cooperation between Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana as well as Togo and Benin.

Project data

Countries: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo
IKI funding: 3,678,016.49 €
Duration: 01/2016 till 06/2022
Status: completed
Implementing organisation: GRID-Arendal
Political Partner: Secretariat of the Abidjan Convention - Ivory Coast
Implementing Partner: Secretariat of the Abidjan Convention - Ivory Coast
Online: https://mamiwataproject.org/

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State of implementation/results

Project completed.
The MAMI WATA pilot projects in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana have started their work in 2018 and early 2019.
In Côte D’Ivoire, the “Gestion intégrée de l’aire marine et côtière d’Abidjan à Assinie” project is jointly implemented with the Centre Ivoirien Antipollution (CIAPOL). It covers 80 km of the coastline.
In Ghana, the Environmental Protection Agency is leading the “Ecosystem Based Approach to an Integrated Marine and Coastal Environment Management” (EIMCEM) in Ghana project in the Western Region of the country, with a coastline of approximately 200 km.
The Benin Pilot Project, “GIZMaC (Integrated Management of the Marine and Coastal Zone of Benin)”, is implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. The project covers the country’s whole coastline of approximately 125 km.
Final results are expected by December 2021, particularly on the Marine Spatial Plans. EBSAs have been identified by Benin, Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana. Similarly, State of the Marine Environment Reports have been validated in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire and are in the process of final validation with stakeholders in Ghana.
Besides the country-focused work, a cross-borderborder cooperation between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana aims at protecting a shared stock of economically significant Sardinella, and to address pollution of the shared Aby Lagoon.

Latest Update:
04/2025