Book excerpt: This Workshop was held to generate inputs and guidance to the contents and process of developing an assistance programme for fisheries and aquaculture. The programme's overall goal is to ensure that responsible and sustainable use of fisheries and aquaculture resources make an appreciable contribution to human well-being, food security and poverty alleviation. The workshop stressed the need to include fisheries and aquaculture, especially the small-scale subsectors, into poverty alleviation, food security and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. These should be informed by a human rights approach to development. The challenges to advance the poverty alleviation and food security agendas are considerable. Concerted efforts and partnerships at different levels and scales are needed and interventions should be firmly anchored in the regional, national and local context. It is vital to build up national and local ownership in accordance with the Paris Declaration and this should be a key requirement for the inception phase and beyond.