SocPro4Fish Inception Meeting - Tunisia

Lookback at the SocPro4Fish inception meeting in Tunisia where it was discussed how to extend social protection coverage to fishers and fish workers SSF (Small Scale Fisheries). 

During the opening remarks, Ms. Maha Mezrioui from DG CRES stressed that the SocPro4Fish project is essential to increase the resilience of fishers, improve their living standards and support evidence-based institutions to extend social protection coverage to fishers.  

The inception meeting kicked off with speeches by 

• Mr. Nader Ajabi, Ministry of Social Affairs, anticipated the results on the socio-economic conditions of fishers and barriers to accessing social protection from the #SocPro4Fish will serve as a basis for revising existing frameworks and providing a flexible and effective socpro to #fishers. 

• Mr. Yassine Skandrani, MARHP, emphasized the commitment of Tunisia to implementing SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), maintain environmental and economic equilibrium & provide better living standards in the fisheries sector. 

• Philippe Ankers, FAO, stressed the key role of social protection to ensure the sustainability of artisanal fisheries and the resilience of SSF communities to various covariant shocks (economic, social, and environmental) that negatively impact their living standards. 

It was followed by the presentations from: 

Mrs. Daniela Kalikoski, FAO, reflected on social protection for the Fisheries sector and presented the global SocPro4Fish project. In her presentation. She answered the important question:  

“Why do we need social protection in the fisheries sector?” Social Protection provides fishers, which are more vulnerable to covariant shocks, with a safety net and empowers them to move forward. 

Mr. Yessine Ben Arfa, National Coordinator, Ministry of Agriculture, presented the SocPro4Fish project in Tunisia. He highlighted that some key achievements of the project such as  

• The creation of a technical committee that brings together inter-institutional stakeholders who can help improve or modify social protection schemes for fishers. 

• The developments technical tools to improve the ability of fishers to respond to covariant shocks 

Mr. Seif Ben Sassi, CRES, reported the results of the exploratory study on social protection for the artisanal fisheries sector in Tunisia. One of the key recommendations from SocPro4Fish exploratory study is a readjustment and innovation:  

• affiliation modalities 

• of the contributory capacity 

• of the artisans on awareness and communication with fishers. 

Omar Benammour, FAO, presented the Policy brief on the coherence framework. He underlined that Social Protection, when designed in coherence with fisheries policies, can generate positive impacts on the environment, income diversification, increased capacity to Manage Risks & achieve Food Security and Nutrition. 

Fabio Veras, Director International Studies, spoke about the performance study and Benchmarking. He pointed out that one of the limitations to the inclusion of small-scale #fishers in social protection programmes is the continuous nature of the contributions, which is incompatible with fisheries seasonality.