First CCLME national consultation on multi-sectoral consortium and partnership agreement in Cabo Verde

 On April 5 and 6, 2022 was held the first national consultation meeting of stakeholders of the CCLME project in Cabo Verde. The workshop brought together representatives of public institutions, NGOs and organizations directly involved in the development and implementation of national policy on fisheries and environment, land management, tourism, universities and marine monitoring. The opening ceremony was chaired by the technical coordinator of the CCLME project in Cape Verde, Ms. Hiliana Silva, the program assistant of the FAO representation in Cape Verde, Ms. Katya Neves, and the regional coordinator of the CCLME project, Mr. Aboubacar Sidibé.

In his opening speech, Mr. Aboubar Sidibé, made a brief history of the CCLME project which started with the first phase from 2010 to 2019 which allowed the development and approval, by the Member States, of a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) with the objective of combating the degradation of the CCLME caused by overfishing, habitat modification and changes in water quality.

He also mentioned that the CCLME project is in a transitional phase, creating favorable conditions for the effective implementation of the CCLME strategic action plan and the three project components and expected results.

Then, Ms. Katya Neves, emphasized the importance of the project for Cape Verde in terms of marine and coastal conservation, also stressed that the strategic action plan is the first to be carried out in Cape Verde, as a means to mobilize resources for its implementation.

Among the first activities to be undertaken in this transition phase of the CCLME project is the organization of the first national consultations on the proposed multi-sectoral consortium and partnership agreement in each country covered by the project. These consultative meetings will serve to review the governance framework for the proposed cross-sectoral collaboration in the SAP.

Indeed, at the CCLME interim phase launch workshop, countries and partners presented the activities to be implemented in synergy as part of the creation of a consortium. Thus, the national consultation meeting allowed for further reflection on the partnership model, clarification of intentions and responsibilities, exploration of alternatives, and then identification of potential consortium members at the national and regional level who could commit to undertaking specific activities. The results of the national consultations will therefore serve as the basis for proposed recommendations on the consortium model and partnership agreement for the implementation of the strategic action plan.

Although it was not possible during the workshop to develop the proposed terms of reference for the creation of the consortium, some recommendations for the creation of the consortium emerged:

• Identify the technical and financial partners, relevant institutions and NGOs that will be part of the consortium;
• Verify the type of free-will partnership;
• Identify the partnership and funding models.