The period 2015-2025 has been declared as “Africa’s Decade of the Seas and Oceans” by the African Union Heads of State and Government meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (25 July). Attention will be focused on Africa's Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIM-Strategy), to which IMO’s work to support Africa through technical cooperation will contribute. The formal launch was attended by IMO’s Juvenal Shiundu and William Azuh of the Technical Cooperation Division.
The African Union’s Maritime Charter and the 2050 AIM-Strategy were developed with the collaboration of IMO and formally adopted by the 22nd African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in January 2014. The 25 July will be marked on each year, throughout Africa, as the “African Day of Seas and Oceans”.