Background

Policy-making can be defined as ‘the process by which governments translate their political vision into programmes and actions to deliver outcomes’.  A solid, well-grounded and robust policy aquaculture framework is required as a basis for sustainable development and its contribution to food security and economic growth.  A policy provides the well-considered sectoral goal and objectives that are essential for subsequent strategy and development planning. 

To date aquaculture development in the Pacific Island region has largely occurred in a policy vacuum, and that this has undoubtedly contributed to the sector’s slow and uncertain growth since its inception after the Second World War.  Indicators of this lack of policy direction include:

The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate the policy-making needs of the 15 ACP countries in the Pacific Region and to provide a set of practical guidelines for developing an aquaculture policy framework.  This study has been implemented by the ACP Fish II Programme with European Union (EU) funding.