The Aquaculture Network for Africa (ANAF) was established as a public-sector network in 2006, to coordinate and facilitate scientific and technical information exchange in aquaculture, regional and sub-regional collaborative aquaculture research, training of fish farmers and extension workers and technology transfer to accelerate sustainable aquaculture development within Africa. Initially founded as a working group comprising six-member countries of FAO Committee on Inland Fisheries (CIFA), ANAF has now transformed to become the AU platform of Directors of Aquaculture whose role is to support, facilitate, coordinate and promote the establishment of partnerships, including with Africa’s Non-State Actor Networks, for the coherent implementation of AU policies and strategies on sustainable aquaculture development in Africa. Its membership has expanded to include all the countries of the Africa Union. Integration within the African Union was requisite for assuring the long-term commitment of African Union Member States towards establishing aquaculture development sustainably.
Thus, over the next five-years ANAF aims to strengthen multi-stakeholder sectoral initiatives for aquaculture information and knowledge generation and sharing, to foster coherent sustainable aquaculture development across the continent. This approach is guided by the Pan-African Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (PFRS) that advocates all AU Member States to develop their fisheries and aquaculture sectors in a manner that focuses on (i) productivity, (ii) profitability, (iii) sustainability, (iv) wealth generation, (v) social welfare, nutrition and food security, (vi) regional management of shared resources and (vi) strengthening south-south (bilateral and regional) cooperation while factoring in resilience building.