Report of the Workshop on Support to East African Coastal Communities

Prof. Thomas Mandrup (Royal Danish Defence College) acted as the convenor of this workshop. Dr James A. Malcolm (Coventry University) served as the chair and Prof. Wikus Jansen van Rensburg (Stellenbosch University) fulfilled the duties of the workshop secretary. The workshop is a Danish initiative funded largely from the Royal Danish Defence College with a particular focus upon the fishing communities along the eastern littoral of Africa. There is a dire need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the link between maritime security and Africa's prosperity. About 60% of Africa's population lives within 160km of the sea, 90% of Africa's trade flows via the sea, and 200 million Africans depend on fish as a protein resource. This means that a substantial proportion of Africa's economic, and by implication political, activities are closely connected to good order at sea. To ignore this, will lead to bad order at sea - exactly what was experienced in the past decade.