Stakeholders of shellfish resources in West Africa, including resource user groups, national governments, researchers, NGOs, and multilateral agencies, have met for the first time in history, albeit virtually, to discuss key issues bothering the sustainable management of shellfish in the region.

Women-led shellfisheries are gaining the spotlight, and over the last two years, the USAID Women Shellfisheries and Food Security Project have made significant strides in elevating its level of awareness among 11 coastal West African countries.

From Senegal to Nigeria, key stakeholders are getting informed about this essential small-scale fishery that has long been neglected. However, the sector plays an important role in the livelihood and nutrition of women and their households on the rural coast where poverty is rife.

The two-phase workshop, held in March and July 2022, respectively, aimed to engage key stakeholders, primarily the women harvesters, government, academia, NGOs, regional bodies, and other related projects in the development of a toolkit for the up-scaling of estuarine and mangrove ecosystem-based shellfisheries in West Africa.

The outcomes of the project, including a regional shellfisheries assessment report and multivariate analysis of the theory of change model for the project, were disseminated.