I would like to thank the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) for seeking comments from stakeholders on the scope of the study on the Role of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition. My comments are in two parts: general and specific.
General
Sharpen focus of the scope of the study: In its request to the HLPE to conduct a study on the Role of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) expects that the report of this study will be” policy oriented, practical and operational”. In its current form, the scope appears to be broad and as a consequence the CFS’s expectations might not be fully met. It will thus be helpful to consider sharpening the focus of the scope of the study. While in the case of some of the issues reported in the scope there is broad reference to work done by FAO and others, it needs to be expanded and recorded for other issues as well. Attaching a reference section at the end of the document will be useful, as was done in the scope of the study for food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems. Moreover, it will be more productive to highlight major analyses already done with regards to food and nutrition security under each of the issues and state what new grounds need to be specifically examined for the study (more comments are in the specific section below). In doing so, importance should be given to prioritization of the new areas to be analyzed.
Linkages with related food and nutrition studies and frameworks: In addition to the study on fisheries and aquaculture, the CFS requested the HLPE to conduct a number of interrelated studies, of which two are completed--- Food security and climate change, and Social protection for food security--- and two are ongoing---Investing in smallholder agriculture for food and nutrition security, and food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems. It will be useful to report in the scope of the study how the fisheries and aquaculture study intends to link with and draw on the work already done/or to be done under the other related studies, given that some of the related studies have covered fisheries and aquaculture as well. For example, in the case of smallholder agriculture study, agriculture is considered in a broad sense, including livestock production, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production. Similarly, in the Declaration of the 2009 World Summit on Food Security, agriculture comprises crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, including aquaculture. In the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition ( consolidated version endorsed by the 39th session of the CFS ), references to small-scale food processors or to smallholder farmers are meant to include smallholder farmers, agriculture and food workers, artisanal fisher folk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and the landless.
Focus on lessons learnt, best practices and scaling up: Given that substantial work has been done with regards to food and nutrition security under various policy studies, programmes and projects, particularly in the agriculture sector, it will be useful to separately highlight in the scope of the fisheries and aquaculture study lessons learnt and best practices adopted, both of which could then form the building blocks for scaling up promising initiatives. The highlighting of this task will also contribute to meeting the expectations of the CFS, as stated earlier.
Specific
To substantiate the comments made in the general section, this section provides comments on some of the issues stated in the scope of the study.
Issue 7: How sustainable aquaculture can be promoted for food security and nutrition, as well as livelihoods, into the longer term?
This section needs to be reformulated to take into accounts recent developments. In this section, it is mentioned that: “It is essential to review the development of aquaculture and discuss the policy options for the sustainable development of this important sector in order to ensure its maximum contribution to food security and nutrition.” The fact is FAO conducted a review of global aquaculture in 2010, the findings of which were discussed at a “Global conference on Aquaculture 2010” in Phuket, Thailand. The conference resulted in the Phuket Consensus and Strategy for Aquaculture Development. The link to the FAO report, which was mostly drafted by me, is: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/ba0132e/ba0132e.pdf (FAO 2011).
Regarding aquaculture’s contributions to food security, the FAO report stressed the need to conduct a more systematic and quantitative evaluation of the impact of aquaculture. Following the Global conference, in October 2012, a major international initiative was launched to better understand the role of aquaculture in food security in poor countries. The initiative will help low-income food-deficit countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to develop sustainable policies for improving the livelihoods of millions of poor people. It will also elaborate strategies for improving the impact of aquaculture on food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation (see link).
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/159323/icode/
Issue 10. What other policies and relevant technology options are available for waste minimisation, better resource accountability and management?
In the scope of the study on food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems, the issues proposed for review are more focused and could be considered for inclusion in the scope of the study on fisheries and aquaculture. The issues are: concept/definitions, taking into account for quantities and quality of food lost and wasted; measuring and data availability (indicators, extension and trends); impacts: impacts of food losses and of food waste on the four dimensions of food and nutrition security; sustainable food systems: causes of food losses and of food waste; economic, social and environmental dimensions; public policies: present state of public policies; policies leading to or ignoring related food losses and waste; programmes aimed at reducing food losses and/or food waste.
In this issue, there is also a call for a review of the current status of insurance in the fisheries sector, and an examination of its importance for food security and nutrition, followed by recommendations for improvement. First, it needs to be considered whether access to insurance and credit by smallholders, particularly women and youth, should be a standalone issue. Another point is that access to insurance and credit by small-scale aquaculture farmers was reviewed in the context of the global aquaculture 2010 review. New developments, particularly in Asia, were reported. In the case of capture fisheries, in 2009, FAO conducted a global review of the current state of world capture fisheries insurance (see link for the report, which has a number of papers prepared by me, http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0744e/i0744e00.htm ). At this stage, the fisheries and aquaculture study could assess the new or follow-up developments from a food security and nutrition perspective.
Thanks.
Imtiaz U Ahmad
Sustainable Development Consultant
(Former World Bank staff)
Imtiaz Ahmad