Context

As a maritime area of intense activity, the Gulf of Guinea offers a great diversity of economic and marine resources. In recent years, it has experienced an expansion of accidents and criminal acts at sea (piracy, pollution, illegal traffic, illegal fishing, etc.), which jeopardise the development and blue economy of the entire region.

In response, the 22 Member States of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (CGG) initiated the Yaoundé process to ensure the maritime security of the region. In June 2013, the Yaoundé Summit resulted in the signing of three instruments: the Declaration of Heads of State and Government, the Memorandum defining the cooperation between the regional organisations and the Code of Conduct. These instruments are at the origin of the information sharing architecture between the signatory countries.

In support of this initiative, the European Union adopted a strategy on the Gulf of Guinea in 2014, implemented through especially the Critical Maritime Routes program, to which belongs the GoGIN project (Inter-regional Network for the Gulf of Guinea).

The GoGIN project covers the 19 coastal countries, from Senegal to Angola, and works closely with the three regional organisations (ECCAS, ECOWAS, CGG), the three transnational centres (CRESMAO, CRESMAC and ICC), the five multinational coordination centres. and the national centres, constituting the architecture of Yaoundé.

Project managed by Expertise France, from October 2016 to October 2020, for a total amount of € 9,162,000.

Objective: “Securing the Gulf of Guinea to promote the blue economy”

Intended to enhance maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea to promote the blue economy and economic development of coastal countries, the European GoGIN project aims more specifically to:

• Improve collection, analysis and sharing of maritime information, in accordance with the respective needs of countries and supranational maritime centres;
• Provide specific support to the various national organisations of maritime interest to assist them in the definition and implementation of their national maritime strategies and facilitate inter-agency collaboration;
• Provide specific support to the transnational maritime centres of Yaoundé architecture to ensure their full operationalisation according to the assigned missions.

Activities

Following those objectives, the EU GoGIN is structured according to 5 groups of activities:

• Process and organization: the project provides support to volunteer centres to improve their processes and internal organisation and thus increase their effectiveness;
• Training and exercises: the project sets up courses related to maritime security and maritime challenges within the partnering maritime universities (ARSTM Abidjan and RMU Accra) for the different agencies. It also carries out practical exercises on topics such as illegal fishing, pollution or the management of a crisis at sea to develop the inter-agency culture;
• Information systems: the project initiates the development of software and tools for maritime centres that allow a better awareness of what is happening at sea and a joint management of responses to maritime incidents. In addition to these software, IT equipment may be provided.
• Legal studies: in collaboration with UNODC, the project can conduct assessment of national maritime legal frameworks and submit recommendations;
• National needs studies: the project proposes to conduct a survey of the specific needs of each country in the maritime domain.