Fruitful discussions and connections at the SSF Summit 2024
©Photo: CAOPA/Aliou Diallo
The second Small-Scale Fisheries Summit (SSF Summit 2024), which happened in FAO headquarters in Rome from 5 to 7 July 2024, was co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the International Planning Committee (IPC) Working Group on Fisheries, the Small-Scale Fisheries Resource and Collaboration Hub (SSF Hub) and by SwedBio, with funding from the European Commission (DG MARE). Bringing together more than 300 people – primarily representatives of small-scale fisheries organizations and movements, but also inter-governmental organizations, NGOs and governments - the Summit ended with positive outcomes that were reflected during the Committee on Fisheries (COFI 36) and in several parallel meetings between stakeholders that happened in the following days.
The SSF Summit 2024 was designed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), to advance priority actions for sustainable small-scale fisheries and to assess the current status of the SSF Guidelines implementation at the national, regional and global level to inform future actions. Participants focused on chapter 5a – Responsible governance of tenure with a focus on customary Tenure, and chapter 6 – Social development, employment and decent work, with a focus on social development, as a result of a participatory consultation process with small-scale fishers, their organizations and/or representatives, and relevant stakeholders on what should be discussed at the 2nd Summit. The GFCM also took the opportunity to celebrate the mid-term review of the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea (RPOA-SSF).
 Replies from participants on the last day of the event. |
The first day of the event was exclusive for small-scale representatives, close to 130 participants came together to meet and engage in dialogue. The second and third days were open to other invitees. The agenda was dedicated to shared plenary sessions aimed at commemorating the 10th anniversary of the SSF Guidelines, and parallel sessions and short presentations by selected participants, including an interactive dialogue and Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries of the GFCM - mid-term review. On Sunday afternoon, a dialogue session with governments and a wrap up session marked the closing of the summit.
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The richness of the discussions was an expression of the diversity of the participants, more than 80 countries were represented at the event: 140 small-scale fisheries actors, 46 NGO’s, 22 International Organizations and institutions, 40 government representatives, 14 academia and 4 private sector participants brought different views to the SSF Summit.
An evening reception was held on Sunday in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the SSF Guidelines. The participants had the opportunity to engage in informal conversation, cultural exchange, be entranced by a Djembe (West African drums) performance, dance, and eat an SSF Guidelines-inspired anniversary cake, which was cut by John Kurien and Rolf Willmann, considered as the fathers of the guidelines
SSF Summit reflected at COFI
The aim of the SSF Summit is to serve as a global platform for small-scale fisheries movements to engage with governments and other small-scale fisheries advocates in an accessible and non-technical forum to collaboratively address governance and development challenges in small-scale fisheries while proposing and sharing solutions to foster and strengthen the implementation of the SSF Guidelines.
The 1st SSF Summit was held prior to the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) 35th Session on 5-9 September 2022, and some government representatives joined for its last day. The COFI 35th Session emphasized “the unique opportunity to gather commitments and recommendations at a Summit on small-scale fisheries, which is encouraged to be held every two years prior to COFI, subject to resourcing, to sustain and inform continued support to the sub-sector”
On the final report of the 36th COFI session the SSF Summit was once again highlighted, during this session, countries “recognized the importance of the SSF Summit as a platform for small-scale fisheries actors to exchange views and express needs to secure sustainable small-scale fisheries; and continued to encourage the Summit be held every two years prior to COFI” and “appreciated the information shared on the 2nd SSF Summit, held prior to COFI 36, and encouraged FAO to continue holding SSF Summits prior to future COFI meetings”.
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