In their own words: the role of funding agencies in the implementation of the SSF Guidelines
Gunilla Greig – Senior Fisheries Specialist at the World Bank – explains the role of the SSF Guidelines in the context of the World Bank
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The World Bank champions the Blue Economy agenda, assisting governments in creating an enabling environment for the integrated and sustainable development of marine and coastal resources in healthy oceans. This work is supported in part by the PROBLUE program, a multi-donor trust fund housed at the World Bank. An integral part of advancing this agenda is supporting inclusive and effective governance systems for small-scale fisheries and the communities that rely on them. In doing so, the SSF Guidelines serve as a comprehensive reference – including on the current and potential role of the sector and the women and men that make it up. The World Bank promotes tools and approaches together with FAO and other partners, and helps countries invest in fisheries governance and management that can sustain coastal livelihoods and contribute to the wider food-security agenda.
What types of tools is the World Bank developing to help support small-scale fisheries?
Underpinning any policy or investment in fisheries is sound analysis of the sector and its stakeholders. To facilitate this for World Bank teams and countries alike, the World Bank is developing the Fisheries Sector Assessment Toolkit (FSAT) in collaboration with FAO and other partners. Tools which can assess the role and contributions of small-scale fisheries include a Public Expenditure Review (PER) Guidance Note, to bring to light the trade-offs in fisheries policies and helps countries make better-informed choices about fisheries management. Another tool is a fisheries module questionnaire template for inclusion in routine national household surveys, to collect detailed information about coastal populations and ensure that the needs and status of beneficiaries can be properly accounted for when designing interventions. Importantly, in order to help countries look beyond fisheries management to promote resilient coastal communities, the World Bank has recently begun a global study on how social-protection programs can support fishers and their communities while reducing overexploitation and enhancing the sustainability of fisheries-based livelihoods - the SSF Guidelines will inform this work.
What are some concrete examples of how the World Bank is supporting countries on specific measures for the benefit of SSF?
In Costa Rica, where the World Bank has supported the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the design of a comprehensive fisheries program targeting small-scale-fishing communities along both coasts. The project is designed to help these communities actively co-manage fisheries, reduce fishing effort where needed to allow over-exploited stocks to recover, and support these community-led measures with targeted social-protection programs and payments for improving the status of fishery ecosystems. Another example is in the Caribbean, where the World Bank has supported the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism and the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility in the design of a new parametric insurance product that targets small-scale fishers and fish workers. The insurance provides quick cash payouts to individuals in the fisheries sector to help meet immediate needs after a major storm or hurricane. The new insurance product also promotes stronger fisheries management. Piloted in Grenada and Saint Lucia during the 2020 hurricane season, the insurance product requires governments to first update their fishery registry (including those, predominantly women, working further down the value chain) in order to better understand the size of the sector and facilitate payouts to those affected.
In addition, and as part of the FAO-coordinated Coastal Fisheries Initiative, the World Bank is leading the Challenge Fund Project. The role of the World Bank under this project is to connect fishing communities and businesses as well as government and investors in initiatives to improve coastal fish resources, enhance the well-being of communities and boost local and national economies. Part of the Project will be a global competition, whereby coalitions of all these parties will be invited to propose innovative solutions for the sustainable use of a shared global public good.
Martin Hoppe - Head Food and Nutrition Security, Global Food Policy and Fisheries, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – tells us about the SSF Guidelines in the context of Germany’s development cooperation.
What is the role of the SSF Guidelines in the context of BMZ’s development cooperation?
It is one of the core objectives of BMZ’s ocean and fisheries policy to support the millions of small-scale fishers and their sustained livelihoods. Small-scale fishers in developing countries make up 90 percent of the workforce in the fisheries sector worldwide. They provide important food to their families and local markets. The SSF Guidelines highlight the importance of small-scale fisheries for nutrition and food security and the right of vulnerable and marginalized groups to adequate food. The SSF Guidelines reflect the complexity of the fisheries sector, name clear principles and call for action.
A keystone policy document such as the SSF Guidelines was definitely missing. BMZ supported the development of the SSF Guidelines from the beginning, starting with the Global Conference on Small Scale Fisheries in Bangkok in 2008, over numerous consultations and workshops, up to the 2014 endorsement of the SSF Guidelines by the FAO Committee on Fisheries. The SSF Guidelines complement the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries of 1995 and two related international instruments: the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security
BMZ’s Ten Point Action Plan for Marine Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries released in 2014 explicitly refers to the SSF Guidelines. Likewise, BMZ’s Global Programme on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture, implemented by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), refers to the SSF Guidelines and contributes to their implementation in eight partner countries. Furthermore, through BMZ’s special initiative One World – No Hunger we are supporting other partners such as the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), whose efforts also contribute to the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. The SSF Guidelines are also a required reference in all projects supported by the Blue Action Fund, administered by KfW Development Bank, with core funding by BMZ.
Why does BMZ see value in supporting the implementation of the SSF Guidelines?
The SSF Guidelines have resulted from a broad, consultative and inclusive process. Therefore, the SSF Guidelines are an internationally agreed and highly respected normative instrument. Today numerous organizations, including many NGOs, are working to disseminate the content of the SSF Guidelines as well as implement them. This includes translation into various local languages, the preparation of visual communication materials, and training workshops with fisher communities, women processor groups and other actors along fisheries value chains. We hope that these efforts will create a higher awareness of the issues raised in the SSF Guidelines and of the suggestions to support and transform the sector at the local level. The majority of national governments has already approved the SSF Guidelines, but implementation lags behind with many more necessary changes required so that eventually small-scale fishers will feel the benefit.
What is BMZ’s message to other development partners in relation to supporting efforts to implement the SSF Guidelines?
The SSF Guidelines should guide all development cooperation projects in the field of fisheries and marine conservation. Our approach is to engage development partners also at the local level. We see this as a key strategy for implementing the SSF Guidelines. For example, our project in Uganda cooperates with several national and regional partners like women´s, boat owners’, processors’ and traders’ associations and supports them in the interpretation and practical implementation of the SFF Guidelines. Thereby we strengthen their voice in political consultation and decision-making processes and their role in the fisheries value chain. We also contribute scientific information on the development of the natural resources as a basis for informed fishery management decisions in countries like Uganda and Mauretania. And in Malawi we facilitate the national Aquaculture Round Table, a multi-stakeholder-platform to discuss current challenges of the sector and find joint solutions for a sustainable development. This participatory approach is also grounded in the SSF Guidelines. BMZ also provides support to the organization Bread for the World who in turn closely cooperates with the African Confederation of Professional Organisations of Artisanal Fishing (CAOPA), which supports the uptake and implementation of the SSF Guidelines.
What are BMZ’s plans in relation to celebrating the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture in 2022, considering also Germany’s role as EU chair?
Recently, BMZ, together with the European Parliament’s Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition, the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), and FAO, organised a virtual meeting entitled “Fish(ing) for Future – Sustainable Fish for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa”. Interventions were also made by the African Union, WorldFish, CAOPA and Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). Over 200 participants saw insightful presentations, new research results and posed many questions. The participants highlighted the importance of fisheries for nutrition and food security and the need to maintain, protect and appreciate small-scale fisheries. The SSF Guidelines were referred to many times. We want to follow up on this promotion of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture as key factor for food and nutrition security together with our EU trio presidency partners Portugal and Slovenia.
By 2022 we expect to have achieved and documented major results and impacts from the activities I mentioned earlier. We will be delighted to share these at an opportune event as a contribution to the celebration of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. These should also involve representatives from small-scale fishers and other key actors in the sector. It will be an opportunity to discuss with all partners the way forward to continue implementing the SSF Guidelines and to achieve inclusive and sustainable global fisheries.
European Commission, Directorate General of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
What is the European Commission’s perspective on the SSF Guidelines?
We would start with underlining the importance of small-scale fisheries in the EU: small-scale fisheries represent approximately 80% of the EU fishing fleet and half of the total EU fleet effort. In 2017 small-scale fisheries employed almost 80 000 fishers, contributing to 48% of employment in EU fisheries. Their place is especially important in the Mediterranean, where over half of the EU’s small-scale fisheries is concentrated and where the sector has been playing a dominant role in the livelihoods of coastal communities for centuries.
At the international level, the EU joined other high-level representatives from the Mediterranean and Black Sea in drafting and adopting a Regional Plan of Action for SSF (RPOA-SSF) in 2018. Signed as a Ministerial Declaration in the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (GFCM), the RPOA-SSF solidified a regional commitment, previously established in the MedFish4Ever and Sofia Ministerial Declarations, to support SSF in the region. This plan is based on the conclusions of the First Regional Symposium on Sustainable SSF in the Mediterranean and Black Sea (Malta, November 2013), as well as the SSF Guidelines.
The Ministers of both sea basins endorsed the RPOA-SSF to address the challenges and develop the potential of sustainable small-scale fisheries in the coming 10 years. This Plan covers a wide range of specific actions tailored to small-scale fisheries: better representation and participative approach, better share of traditional knowledge, improved research and scientific data, adequate support and training, appropriate control system and fight against illegal activities, support to the role of women, access to new technologies and more sustainable fishing practices. Small-scale fisheries, as all other fisheries actors, are entitled to the support and equal rights but at the same time are responsible for the sustainable exploitation of marine resources. The EU will continue its assistance to GFCM and third countries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea with the aim to strengthen their capacities in all fisheries related issues, including small-scale fisheries.
The EU is supportive of the FAO’s work on the implementation of the SSF Guidelines and the monitoring of their uptake. We also recognize that, in order to develop appropriate management measures for small-scale fisheries, it is important to have information on their scope and stakeholders, operations and impacts. To this end, we will continue to fully support the work on improving the information baseline and a broadened assessment of small-scale fisheries - for inland and marine waters alike.