20 November 2020, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Attécoubé, a suburb south of the capital Abidjan is famed for its artisanal fisheries. Faced with lockdowns, curfews and border closures since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in March, Côte d’Ivoire’s fish-dependent communities have struggled to stay afloat.

Trade restrictions stopped fishing families from harvesting, accessing markets, buying and selling their catch. Women, over-represented in low-paid jobs in the informal sector are among the most vulnerable groups, as they often juggle care responsibilities for family members and work long hours.

The Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI) – a global effort to improve coastal fisheries management and conserve marine biodiversity supports local communities in the West African nation.

One beneficiary of the programme is Clarisse Togbo. She used to sell pork meat before becoming a fisher in 2005, having spotted the scope to earn a decent wage and offer her two young children opportunities – not least a protein-packed diet.

She worked on one of the many fishing docks in Attécoubé before joining one of four cooperative groups established by the CFI in her area in 2015.

The CFI has helped to facilitate access to modern infrastructure including the Locodjro fishing dock which spans an area of ​​1.4 hectares and boasts a vast platform, a footbridge and two pontoons for docking small vessels.

“In 2015, the market was flourishing. By investing a small amount of money, you could buy a lot of fish,” said Togbo: “Garba – a form of fried tuna, typically eaten with a sauce made from cassava leaves – is popular here,” she said.

“You could sell 500 kilograms of fish between six in the morning and six in the evening and take home the equivalent of USD 35 every day,” she added.

Togbo is just one example of a fisher who used to operate from a poorly maintained landing stand, now, with inputs from CFI, she has a safe space to angle from and has been taught sustainable fishing techniques to enhance her business.

Sowing the seeds of food security

Cooperative groups connect via social networks to stave off food insecurity @FAO/Mireille Boti

“To keep the food supply chain alive, we teamed up with individual fishers, setting up a WhatsApp group to build a bridge between producers – who couldn’t sell their products because of restrictions related to COVID-19 and, households facing food and nutritional insecurity,” said Fatou Sock, Coordinator for the CFI West Africa and Global Partnerships Projects at FAO.

Undeterred by the obstacles of operating in such a complicated context, Togbo and around 50 others continued to do business by using the WhatsApp group to take pictures of her catch, connect and negotiate a fair price with potential clients and deliver it directly to customers in their homes.

When the peak fishing season began in July, she and her colleagues used old refrigerators to store the surplus food while using smoking and drying methods to preserve produce and accumulate supplies in case of shortages.

Such planning procedures have so far served them well over the pandemic which hit the entire food system, laying bare its fragility.

Marginalized populations among hardest hit in low-income countries

FAO and UN partner agencies have warned that the COVID-19 crisis presents an unprecedented test to public health, food systems and the world of work.

Tens of millions are at risk of falling into extreme poverty worldwide and the number of undernourished people – estimated to be around 690 million – could increase by up to 132 million by the end of 2020.

Coastal fisheries are vital to millions of people across West Africa: “In a part of the world where poverty reduction remains a development goal, preserving the rich diversity of marine species will help protect lives and livelihoods,” said Sock.