From 27 to 30 April 2026, the twelfth edition of the Regional Marine and Coastal Forum (FOMACO) brought together in Nouakchott, Mauritania, those engaged in the governance of marine and coastal resources in West Africa. Organised by PRCM, the WACA programme was represented by WAEMU, led by the Commissioner responsible for Agriculture, Water Resources and the Environment, alongside the Regional Support Office (WACA BAR) led by IUCN PACO and the World Bank team managing the programme.
Before the forum: four days of training on inclusive blue economy
From 20 to 23 April, ahead of FOMACO, WACA BAR co-facilitated with the African Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECOR) at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana a regional train-the-trainers workshop on the inclusive blue economy. Bringing together 27 participants from several West African countries, this workshop aimed to equip regional actors with approaches that reconcile the preservation of coastal resources, social inclusion and economic development – for more resilient models to the benefit of coastal communities.
WACA BAR will also support the pool of experts established in replicating the outcomes at national level, in order to strengthen the dissemination of the approaches and tools developed during the training.
Before and during the forum: Nature-based Solutions in the spotlight
During the pre-forum and the forum itself, the WACA delegation contributed to several strategic sessions dedicated to Nature-based Solutions (NbS), their scaling up and the conditions necessary for their adoption in West Africa. Discussions also focused on blue carbon and the financing opportunities linked to coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves.
A high-level plenary session dedicated to NbS attracted nearly 300 participants, reflecting the growing interest in these approaches in West Africa. The programme also organised a side event dedicated to NbS knowledge resources, highlighting tools and experiences developed to support countries in their coastal resilience strategies.
A packed exhibition
The WACA capitalisation exhibition attracted nearly 250 visitors who came to discover the results of WACA ResIP projects in the areas of coastal protection, ecosystem restoration and community resilience. Through visual panels, key figures and direct exchanges with participants, it allowed the experiences and results achieved across the programme’s different countries to be showcased.
The highlight of this participation: on 29 April, a guided tour bringing together around one hundred participants brought together the Project Management Units (PMUs) of the six countries covered by WACA ResIP – Côte d’Ivoire, São Tomé and Príncipe, Benin, Mauritania, Togo and Senegal – providing a space for sharing field experiences and results across the entire West African coastline.
A reinforced regional presence
With more than 550 cumulative interactions around its activities, the WACA programme consolidated its position on strategic themes such as Nature-based Solutions, the inclusive blue economy and blue carbon, while strengthening synergies with regional partners around concrete and replicable solutions for the West African coastline.
