The preparatory planning necessary to establish a group of, say, three CFC's and one supporting FDU, may take up to one year to complete.
Master plan. Although a considerable amount of very detailed planning is carried out during this stage, the main product of the planning should be a flexible master plan. During implementation modifications will inevitably be made to the plan to meet new and changing circumstances. Even when the CFC's are in full operation further changes and adaptations will have to be introduced. A well designed master plan will accommodate such changes without major upsets.
It describes the different phases in terms of both the time and space through which the development is achieved and lays down the priority order for their implementation. Thus, for example, a master plan may, as one of its components, provide for a mechanical workshop designed to eventually supply service and maintenance to a fully mechanized fishing fleet of the community as well as for the road vehicles and agricultural machinery that the community and its members are expected to acquire sometime in the future. Therefore, the design of the physical layout of the CFC area will take into consideration an adequate space for such a large workshop. During the initial stage, however, only that part of the workshop should be constructed which is going to be needed within the immediate future. It can later be expanded, as necessary, with the expansion of the mechanization and acquisition of vehicles, etc. The building will be planned accordingly with a modest beginning and addition of wings, top floors, etc., until the final development is achieved. With a good master plan there will be no need to destroy what has been built to make space for new and larger facilities, for the growth of the facilities will be built into the plan (see Annex - Village mechanical workshop).
A master plan should take care that the relative sizes and capacities of the different facilities (including power supply) match with each other and with the fishermen's production capacity. It should also cover any prospective integration of the CFC with non-fishery branches of the community's economy and with social and municipal services (say, the CFC generator to supply electricity to school, or even to the whole village, the CFC ice-plant to sell ice to the population and to non-fishery enterprises) and provide for appropriate production capacities.
This preparatory planning will be carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of national and, if required, expatriate specialists. The team leader should be experienced in integrated small-scale fisheries development and work on a full-time basis. The team could, and perhaps should, include personnel who have been engaged in the initial site identification and investigation team, and a representative of the donor agency. Additional specialists in fields such as resource assessment, fishing vessel design, fishing technology, fish handling and preservation, processing, marketing, civil engineering, fishermen's cooperatives, fishermen's credit schemes, community development, etc., might be needed for varying periods. The full and part-time composition of the team will depend entirely on the needs of the local situation.
Immediately on arrival in a community, a planning team can and should demonstrate to the local people that it is really there to help them. Its members will have a considerable amount of experience and expertise in their respective fields and will soon see many situations where small innovations, improvements or immediate help, involving little or no costs can make things a little easier for the day to day life an dwork of the local people; they should take every opportunity to give what help they can. They will certainly have transport and could help out periodically bringing in supplies and spare parts which the fishermen might need; by demonstration they could introduce modest improvemtns to fishing, net making and boat building methods, fish handling and fish processing techniques; with the help of a small operating bodget they might construct a simple shed or shelter to serve as a fishermen's meeting house, a concrete pad at a landing or a timber or concrete to a village well, etc.; all such actions demonstrate to the local people that th eteam has their interests at heart.
The approach of the team msut be participatory. It should live and work within the communities with which it is planning. This is an essential requirement. Many rural communities, often with good reason, are4 confused by the sudden short-term visits of outside experts, suspicious of their intetions and indifferent to their assurances of better things to come. The overcoming of this suspicion and gaining the trust and confidence of the local people are pre-conditions to the team's success.
Furthermore, the team must become familiar with every aspect of the day-to-day working and social life of the local communities, and participate in that life wherever possible. It must listen to all views and opinions of what is wrong, what needs to be done and what are the priorities. Varying opinions will come from different sections of the community, such as different fishermen's groups, boatowners and hired hands, middlemen and cooperative societies, religious and political groups and women's groups.
Getting to know the community's needs as perceived by the people themselves, the team may have to rethink some of its own preliminary ideas. The process of dialogue and consultation will lead to increasing involvement of the local people in the planning process and the decision making. Conflicts of opinion may exist amongst the local people themselves, between groups with different interests, between families and clans or older and younger generations. They may also arise between the local people and the planning team. The team may favour a particular path for development which may be in accordance with government policy or which appears to be sound on technical and economic grounds and will provide apparent benefit to the community. It should not, however, be surprised or discouraged if its recommendation is rejected by local who judge it by a different standpoint and with different criteria in mind in which case the planning team should review and modify its own concepts.
As we said before, one of the main objectives of the preparatory stage is to identify the participating group or groups. Let us first define the expression “participating group” for the purpose of this Guide.
A participating group is the group of people who are going to benefit directly from the programme and who are going to be directly involved in its planning, implementation and day-to-day operation.
The participating group, depending on the circumstances may be the whole community, all or some of the fishermen of the community, for example, the boat owner, or non-owners share fishermen and hired hands, the fishmongers and processors, etc.
In some situations, there may be one central smaller participating group within a wider, less active, overall participating group, which would assume the leading role in the development process
In many cases, the programme may be started by one small participating group which will grow bigger with time, say by recruiting more members into the programme. The programme can also expand by attracting different paticipating groups and inducing them to cooperate with each other (e.g., fishermen and small-scale fish dealers).
Ideally, the whole fishing community participates in the development from the very beginning. Where, however, for financial or other practical reasons this is impossible, it is preferable that the community selects the initial participating group in a democratic manner. Where grass-roots level democracy is not the custom, the selection can be influenced by any other traditional decision-making process within the community.
In some cases, different groups (extended family, tribal, social or religious) may compete for the privilege of being the first involved in the programme, especially where material benefits such as boats, gear or engines are expected. Conflicts may flare up and one should try to avoid a situation where a well-intentioned development programme triggers an upheaval in a community.
Development in general, and participatory development in particular, are to a large extent politically loaded issues and may be dependent on the political and social ideas prevailing among the authorities concerned. There may be cases where certain sorts and groups of people will be excluded from actively participating in the programme for political and other reasons irrelevant to the development of fisheries (women in some countries may serve as an example). The national and expatriate experts, charged with the initiation and planning of the programme, would have to exercise their common sense, sensitivity and realistic political judgement so that they do not get bogged down in “non starter” situations. Such situations may occur for example when a planning team leaves the capital with one set of instructions issued by the national authorities only to find out that in the field the local, regional, or tribal authorities have the final say, and their views are not in agreement with those of the central government.
These are several elements which should be considered when participating groups are being selected:
What possibilities exist for substantial improvement or development in fisheries production; e.g., unexploited fish stock (participating group: fishermen), large post-harvest losses (participating group: fish processors), inadequate marketing system (participating group: fishmongers), etc.
The social position of the various sectors within the community. Accordingly participating groups should be identified from among the poorest, most disadvantaged people.
Political and other preferences of the government.
Existance of interest, leadership and activists. This is a very important criteria. Any group with an active interest in changing its situation should be given consideration as a potential participating group. Caution, however, would be needed where such a group finds itself in opposition to the established community leadership or to the regional or national authorities. In some cases, for the sake of political balance and helping to prevent possible obstructive actions, a parallel participating group “loyal” to the local establishment should be given an equal chance and treatment. Similar solutions may be required where there are more that one dominant ethnic, religious or extended family groups in the community.
It is strongly recommended to be cautious of local political leaders and aspiring leaders who may try, by channelling the benefits and employment involved to their supporters, to use the programme as a lever in local power struggles. Both the real benefits and costs of having such leaders and groups associated with the programme should be closely examined. Although an association between politically oriented groups and development programmes is often unavoidable and even in some cases desirable, one must be aware of the various implications.
Communication, education and age. Young and more educated people are, generally speaking, less conservative and more willing to try new forms of organization and techniques than the older generation. It also may be easier to communicate with the young, especially where language barriers exist.
In some instances, the initial strategy may be to help the fishermen to organize themselves into small socially and economically homogeneous groups (say 10–20 persons) to discuss matters of common interest. Through the process of group formation, joint planning, shared leadership, and decision-making by vote or concensus, group members learn at first hand the costs and benefits of organized group action. In due time, such a group may assume representation functions and even develop into a mutual-guarantee group, a cooperative designed to jointly operate a CFC component, or (with expansion of its membership) a credit scheme. If successful, with time it may become a nucleus for a wider association or, conversely, an example for the creation of additional small groups. Intergroup cooperation may, in turn, further develop into umbrella-type, permanent, temporary, or ad hoc associations. In some areas, small groups may be the traditional form of fishermen's association and cooperation as is the case with large-canoe crews in some African countries. Such already existing groups could be drawn in and become nuclei for the programme in their own communities.
As already mentioned above, the participation of rural poor in the identification, planning and implementation of the programme is a highly recommended objective and an appropriate means for development.
Real people's participation, however, means letting them organize in a self-reliant manner, which unavoidably leads to the increase of their political power. But in some cases, the very notion of encouraging the poor sector of the community to organize, and involving it in the processes of consultation, representation and decision-making may prove highly objectionable to the dominant groups and the established leadership. Consequently, opposition may be strong - if not fierce - and could become fatal to the fledgling programme. Under such circumstances, a strong favourable political will at the national level and in the province or state involved is a must for the survival of both the new organization and of the whole development programme.
The reasons why poor fishermen have been poor or have become poor, and why they do not participate in the mainstream of the economic and political life in their communities or in the decision-making process are many and generally beyond the scope of this publication. But one must remember that these reasons are deeply embedded in the rural society and, in most places, can be removed only through processes, often revolutionary1 in character although not necessarily in form (that is, if revolution is identified with violence and illegal activities). Obviously, the programme can assume a role in such processes only where it has been requested by the government, and where these processes enjoy a full backing of the government. The people's organizations and authorities must play the leading role, while the role of the programme's outsiders, whether nationals or expatriates, would be to provide technical and managerial advice, guidance and assistance.
