Reduced poverty and improved food security and nutrition through more gender-equitable and climate resilient small-scale fisheries livelihoods and food systems. Its outcome statement is that Countries adopt policies and support practices in small-scale fisheries value chains and livelihoods that are more sustainable, inclusive and resilient to climate change and contribute to food security and nutrition.

Status of the sub-programme

Ongoing

SET-UP AND PLANNING

The design of the sub-programme was made in a participatory way, consulting with women small-scale fisheries and government representatives in the initial selected project sub-Saharan Africa countries. The sub-programme was designed as a continuation of activities funded by Norway, in particular those started in 2020 under an extension of the project GCP/GLO/645/NOR (amendment No 2) “Empowering Women in Small-Scale Fisheries for Sustainable Food Systems". It will also build on achievements and ongoing activities under the Sida-funded SSF project “Creating an enabling environment for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries” (GCP/GLO/9765/SWE).

An inception workshop was held in Ghana in 2020. In the planning, there was also close collaboration with African Union (AU) institutions, in particular their development agency, AUDA-NEPAD, which was represented at the inception workshop when the scope and contents of the initiative for the participating African countries were discussed. Other sub-regional organizations, both Regional Fishery Bodies (RFBs) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) were also invited to this workshop. As the sub-programme now has expanded into Asia, collaboration will also be sought with relevant regional organisations.

The sub-programme will also work with relevant global and regional small-scale fisheries organisations and social movements, including the non-state actor (NSA) platforms in Africa with a particular attention to African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFishNET) and the SSF-GSF regional Advisory Groups.

At the national level, the sub-programme’s modus operandi is based on a core team per country consisting of an FAO small-scale fisheries national coordinator, a small-scale fisheries woman representative and a government representative. The presence of the government representative is important for ensuring that all sub-programme interventions are taken in line with the national government’s objectives. Moreover, in accordance with FAO procedures, separate sub-programme agreements have been signed with each participating country based on this project document.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES

The project coordination team in headquarters, technical colleagues, national project coordinators and government and small-scale fisheries focal points have finalized work plans and budgets. As of January 2022, FAO country offices, in collaboration with the Government and small-scale fisheries actors, have begun implementation of some activities (such as workshops) and planning for other (such as surveys and assessments). The project coordination team has also worked with international consultants to build upon regional-level activities from the GCP/GLO/645/NOR project to disseminate results on various studies in order to inform subprogramme activities.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

Since the inception phase in 2020 and up to the current implementation phase, challenges encountered include:

• Travel and movement restrictions due to the pandemic,
• Identifying, backstopping, and building capacity of national counterparts to implement various sub-programme activities.

Mitigation of these challenges have been through:

• Ensuring that work plans include adequate time for planning of meetings, trainings and workshops as well as flexible planning in case restrictions change,
• Reduction of size of physical meetings, holding virtual meetings, trainings and workshops where possible, ensuring use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when fieldwork is necessary,
• Increased responsibilities of national project coordinators and technical capacity of national consultants.