The purpose of this seminar was to review progress made in implementation of ODINAFRICA, identify bottlenecks and propose solutions for consideration by the Project Steering Committee. ODINAFRICA is a project of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, implemented by IODE.

ODINAFRICA aims to improve the management of coastal and marine resources and the environment in the 25 member states by increasing the exchange, analysis and understanding of marine data to enable people to make important decisions affecting the management of the region's marine and coastal environment.

Potential collaboration with other programmes and projects who have been invited to the meeting, including the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme were explored. Lucy was invited to give a presentation on the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) and the Agulhas and Somali Currents Large Marine Ecosystems (ASCLMEs) Project in the context of the meeting.

The development of marine data atlases (stand-alone GIS products that allow users to explore existing datasets) is the main focus of the current phase of ODINAFRICA, and ACEP has been invited to collaborate in this project on the basis of ACEP's data collection, GIS and atlassing activities in the western Indian Ocean region.

Minister Fientje Moerman (Vice-Minister-President of the Flemish Government and Flemish Minister for Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade) attended the first day of the meeting, which was used to mark the first anniversary of the opening of the IODE Project Office in Ostend.

The Government of Flanders and ODINAFRICA are gratefully thanked for the full sponsorship of Lucy's attendance and travel costs.