At the fifteenth session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), held in Cairo in 2015, in the Cairo Declaration on Managing Africa’s Natural Capital for Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, African ministers for the environment agreed to develop a governance strategy, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and regional seas conventions, on oceans and seas in Africa for the effective management of the region’s shared maritime resources, and called for a regional conference to address the matter. At the seventh special session of AMCEN, held in Nairobi in September 2018, in the Nairobi Declaration on Turning Environmental Policies into Action through Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges in Africa, ministers for the environment urged African States to promote the growth and development of the regional ocean sector in a sustainable blue economy pathway and support the mainstreaming of aquatic biodiversity in all productive sectors with a view to sustainably harnessing the blue economy. Accordingly, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which serves as the secretariat for AMCEN, carried out background studies and organized a consultative meeting to assist member States of the African Union in developing an African strategy for ocean governance.