World Aquaculture December 2020

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2020 7 C H A P T E R R E P O R T S N ovember 2020 marks the second anniversary of the African Chapter since establishment in 2018. It is my joy and gladness to see the Chapter being active and growing each day. Of course, much more still needs to be done to position ourselves as a continental leader for enhanced international communications, collaboration and information exchange— serving the aquaculture community in Africa. Perhaps the biggest news item to celebrate during this second anniversary is the recent approval of the hosting agreement betweenWAS and the Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD). Many thanks to the Chapter’s Treasurer, Dr. Bernice Mclean for successfully pushing the process through for almost two years. I salute the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD (Dr. Mayaki) and the WAS President (Dr. Avery) for concluding the process by appending their signatures onto the MoU in October 2020. The African Chapter Secretariat now has an official home at AUDA-NEPAD. A three-year joint work plan between the two parties has been conceptualized and will guide operationalization of the MoU. In addition, signing the MoU has now opened more opportunities for support fromAUDA-NEPAD, as they leverage and mobilize resources for aquaculture development for the continent. The Chapter’s strength lies within the five regions of the continent into which Africa has been divided administratively by the Chapter, where each region is managed by a Regional Director, who is a member of the Chapter’s Board of Directors. There have been positive developments in the regions, especially the ongoing efforts to establish regional structures to serve our membership and the aquaculture community. Regional institutions, distinguished professors, researchers and other key actors in aquaculture have been playing a role in building such structures and being involved as guest panelists in some regional technical webinars on aquaculture. Exchange of information has been active through regional media platforms such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and email lists. Well done to the Regional Directors! And I wish you success in the establishment of these African Chapter regional structures. Speaking of webinars, we keep doing exceptionally well on this front. Our media and publicity partner, Aquaculture Africa Magazine (AAM), has continued to do a tremendous job in hosting a series of webinar sessions that have discussed a number of key technical subjects on aquaculture development in Africa. In the last quarter, many of you attended webinar sessions on Aquaculture Country Profiles for Uganda and Egypt; Catfish Aquaculture in Africa; and Aquafeeds in Africa. There will be a special webinar session on “The Future of Aquaculture in Africa, What Does the Future Hold?” on 3rd December 2020—where some WAS AC Board members shall be panelists. Please connect to the AAMFacebook page https://www. facebook.com/aquaafricamag/ for regular announcements and links to post-webinar recordings. In addition, our West African regional office also convened several webinar sessions that attracted a huge audience fromWest Africa and beyond in the last quarter. You can also visit their Facebook page for regular updates: https://www.facebook.com/West-Africa-Region- of-World-Aquaculture-Society-Africa-Chapter- 112677117075846/?ref=page_internal. We are working to add value to these webinars through improved translations to key languages in Africa such as French, Portuguese and possibly Arabic. Over 500 participants are registered to each of the webinar sessions. We are moving ahead with planning for the long-awaited First Aquaculture Africa Conference (AFRAQ21), which has been rescheduled to December 2021, still at the Alexandrina Bibliotheca, Alexandria City, Egypt. We had our second Steering Committee and Planning meeting this November and it seems that all systems are go for the event and for Egyptian government support. We will soon issue a special press release to update you more on this. Otherwise keep visiting our webpage for more details and regular updates https://www.was.org/meeting/code/AFRAQ20. In an effort to affirm our collaboration with the FAO, the African Chapter participated in the FAO process for the review of FAO State of World Aquaculture 2020 in October 2020. The Secretariat (Executive Officer) Blessing Mapfumo was an author and presenter on the Regional Review of Aquaculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. I was also invited to participate as a panelist in the 27 October 2020 webinar on the Regional Review of Aquaculture in North Africa and Near East Region. These regional reviews and the Status of the World Aquaculture 2020 will be released this December 2020. We hope to do a special Africa edition thereafter. Watch this space! We are keeping our discussions alive with the FAO, which may possibly culminate in an MoU that will include collaboration in the hosting, joint participation in major conferences and events on aquaculture in Africa. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate fellow board members who have recently been promoted or appointed to new positions. African Chapter President-elect Dr. JohnWalakira has recently been promoted to the position of Director of Research at the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NAFIRI), Uganda. Dr. Bernice Mclean (Chapter Treasurer) has been promoted to be Head of Industrialization and Blue Economy at the AUDA-NEPAD. Dr. Harrison Karisa, who left WorldFish in September 2020, is now contracted by the US Soybean Export Council (USSEC) as a key expert who will undertake research activities for aquafeeds in Egypt and the Middle East region. Congratulations for stepping up the ladder! It means a lot to the African Chapter of WAS. In terms of COVID-19, I just looked at the Africa Union Centre for Disease Control (CDC) dashboard. Africa has cumulative cases of just over 2.1 million, of which about 1.8 million have recovered, which is about an 85 percent recovery rate. Unfortunately, the pandemic has caused about 50,600 cumulative deaths across the continent. Cases are more concentrated in North Africa and in Southern Africa (South Africa in particular). Both regions account for 75 percent of total cases. Travel restrictions and lockdowns have significantly been relaxed across the continent and most businesses are close to their pre-COVID status of operation. But, like anywhere African Chapter ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 8 )