The SSF Guidelines in Africa – a narrative
 Dr. Hamady Diop, Head of Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services at the African Union Development Agency - New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD) |
This article gives insights into how the African Union supports implementation of the SSF Guidelines.
What have Africa’s governing bodies been doing to implement the SSF Guidelines?
“The SSF Guidelines provide the backdrop to all small-scale fisheries policy across Africa”, said Dr. Hamady Diop, Head of Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services at the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD), the agency responsible for coordinating and executing priority regional and continental development projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063 – Africa’s vision and action plan. “Even now during the Covid-19 pandemic, the SSF Guidelines are showing us how best to act”.
In 2014, AUDA-NEPAD and the Commission of the African Union published the ‘Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa’ (PFRS), which directly references the SSF Guidelines (which were, at the time, in throes of drafting and negotiation, but nevertheless greatly anticipated globally) and aligned with Africa’s overarching food systems policy directive, the ‘Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme’ (CAADP). Then in 2015 FAO, who had played an important consultative role in the drafting of the PFRS, published the SSF Guidelines. The political bearing of these two documents laid the foundation stone that would enable actors across the continent to comprehensively understand the potential of African small-scale fisheries and their part in achieving sustainable natural resource governance.
However, publishing policy documents amounts to nothing more than a paper park if there is not the political will and investment to back them up. Hamady pointed out that prior to the PFRS, though there were many efforts across the African continent to improve the social, economic and environmental spheres of small-scale fisheries, these efforts were often fragmented and uncoordinated, due to the lack of organisational consensus. The publication of the two aforementioned policy documents, gave AUDA-NEPAD and its partners a comprehensive mandate to unite these efforts under one umbrella.
In a consultative process designed to understand exactly what such a unification would look like for the small-scale fisheries sector of Africa, AUDA-NEPAD and the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) mapped out and consulted an estimated one thousand non-state actors across Africa in 2015. The answer: organisational capacity development with political representation at the highest level. Hence AUDA-NEPAD, with support from FAO, proceeded to develop the Non-State Actor Platforms (NSAs) across North, West, East, South and Central Africa. The function of the NSAs is twofold; on the one hand they draw in and synergise all of the governance efforts being made in small-scale fisheries; the second is to anchor representation at each political level extending all the way up to the African Union’s continental discussions on fisheries.
The formulation of the NSA platforms has also facilitated African small-scale fishery representation at FAO’s highest governing body, the Committee on Fisheries (COFI). AUDA-NEPAD is responsible for developing position papers to then be presented at COFI by the African Regional Group (ARG). These papers, written in conjunction with the ARG and small-scale fishery actors invited to Rome during COFI, are reflective of the views, opinions and aspirations of the NSA platforms. The discourses are formulated and then carried straight to the heart of the discussions at COFI. Discussing African small-scale fisheries at this pinnacle has far reaching consequences for FAO and the way it carries out its political mandate. For example, FAO and AUDA-NEPAD in partnership with its African Members States incorporate the COFI’s instructions into the Country Programming Frameworks (CPF) and in the National and Regional Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIP). The CPFs and NAIPs are tools FAO use for country-level strategic prioritization and overall medium-term country-level programming.
In the era before the SSF Guidelines, the NSA platforms and PFRS, fisheries were often side-lined in countries’ food security policies. However, due to the progress described above, a much more integrated and sustainable food system is evolving as all institutions and entities involved in African development are aligned by the same policy. They are reinforcing of each other and there is far greater vertical integration, with high level political decisions being increasingly accessible to fish workers from across the continent.
What’s the next hurdle for the SSF Guidelines in Africa?
“We have a plethora of policy instruments. Now they need to be implemented” came Dr. Diop’s determined reasoning. For most Africans, fish are a desired food source and contribute hugely to the continent’s nutrient intake and food security. The challenge is capacitating the value chains that distribute the seafood to the market through sustainable means. Ultimately, AUDA-NEPAD acknowledges the private sector’s competency in bolstering these respective value chains, but there is a critical need to go forward with respect of the policies laid out in the SSF Guidelines and PFRS.
This is being met by the Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F). The idea behind CAP-F is simple: on identifying a value chain that is felt to be important for sustainable growth, the value chain’s actors are brought together to discuss where the bottlenecks are. Once identified, relevant and potential private entities are invited to undertake the required business of facilitating the flow of produce, and in each case a task force is set up to follow and monitor the progress of the improvements. CAP-F was developed by the African Union, AUDA-NEPAD and the World Economic Forum, is overseen by Grow Africa, and is anchored within the national and continental architecture of CAADP of which the fisheries dimension is helmed by the PFRS which is in turn informed by the SSF Guidelines. Grow Africa works to increase private sector investment in agriculture and accelerate the execution and impact of investment commitments. The aim is to enable countries to realize the potential of the agriculture sector for economic growth and job creation, particularly among farmers, women and youth.
But is CAP-F helping small-scale fisheries specifically? According to Ms. Etami Ndoping, Grow Africa's Country Operations and Partnerships Lead, Grow Africa are highly aware of the part small-scale fisheries play in African society and economy, and have projects in the Seychelles and Sierra Leone in its sight, though Covid-19 has slowed progress in recent months. However, there is consensus that a number of challenges need to be overcome in order for small-scale fisheries to fully benefit from CAP-F. Dr. Bernice McLean, a Senior Program Officer at AUDA-NEPAD identified the informality of the sector as a potential hurdle in the context of CAP-F. Unlike with agricultural crops like rice or potatoes and even aquaculture, small-scale fisheries are difficult to systematically monitor and evaluate. This leads to an inability to provide consistent and reliable data making financiers and politicians hesitant to invest in the sector. A wicked problem this may be, but deserving of attention considering the value of African fisheries stands at USD $24 billion per year, equal to 1.3% of the continent’s GDP, and employing 12.3 million people or 2.1% of Africa’s workforce (FAO, 2014).
 Dr. Bernice McLean, Senior Program Officer at AUDA-NEPAD |
There are a number of suspected reasons for the lethargy in harnessing the potential to African small-scale fisheries. One of the great institutional barriers is that many of Africa’s fifty-five governments have fisheries and agriculture under one ministry, and as agriculture represents, on average, 15% of Africa’s GDP, there is little wonder small-scale fisheries are sometimes left by the way side (FAO, 2016). However, notes Dr. McLean, the tendency of overlooking small-scale fisheries could also be one of perception, especially when put alongside aquaculture, the continent’s promising breadbasket. Small-scale fishing is perceived as a traditional and somewhat outmoded form of subsistence, whereas aquaculture is the new kid on the block, equipped with investments, innovative technology and shiny statistical forecasts.
In spite of this, aquaculture should not be seen as bad or improper or even as a threat to small-scale fisheries. The challenge, emphasized Dr. McLean, is ensuring that the two work in tandem within the continental frameworks and the ethos of integrated food systems. Each has its place in Africa’s Blue Economy, a priority area of economic growth towards achieving Agenda 2062, and the SSF Guidelines contain a number of important principles to support it. For one thing, Chapter 10 of the SSF Guidelines calls for policy coherence, institutional coordination and collaboration in order “to ensure that fisheries, agriculture and other natural-resource policies collectively enhance the interrelated livelihoods derived from these sectors”. This is invaluably important considering that ‘fisheries, aquaculture, conservation and sustainable aquatic ecosystems’ are first on the list of issues the African Union seek to address in their Blue Economy Strategy (AU, 2019).
However, amongst many small-scale fishery actors there is a resounding fear that the ethos of the Blue Economy is one based purely on profit margins. As has been discussed, small-scale fisheries do not lend themselves to the tenacious ambitions of economic growth and many are concerned that the interests of small-scale fisheries will be forsaken for other marine sectors. Dr. McLean acknowledged that while this was a risk, small-scale fisheries have much to offer towards the attainment of Africa’s Blue Economy aspirations, particularly if aligned to the SSF Guidelines. The SSF Guidelines are multifaceted in design and, if followed in accordance with the Human Rights Based Approach recommended, can bring about prosperity and sustainable growth for all involved.
 Ms. Suzanne Kuria, Managing Director at Kamiti Fish in Kenya |
Ms. Suzanne Kuria, Managing Director at Kamiti Fish in Kenya, is passionate about her work and the change that is coming for small-scale producers across Africa. Importantly, she has been involved in African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET) since its beginnings. The group is made up of predominantly female fish processors and traders and has been instrumental in building momentum for small-scale fish trade and policy change across Africa, not least through drawing attention to the decisive role women play in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture value chains. Ms. Kuria recognises the challenges facing small-scale fisheries, but is insistent that positive reinforcement is the method that is most quickly going to change the face of the trade. “Development agencies often come into fishing villages and tell women their rights are being violated, but this does nothing for the women! Instead the women need to have the power to articulate their rights: 'I am allowed this', not 'I am being denied this' ”. She admitted that the efforts of translating the SSF Guidelines have been a powerful step in the right direction, but still more needs to be done to truly engrain the SSF Guidelines into the rich and complex cultures of Africa.
When asked how this transition might be accomplished, Ms. Kuria responded with “art, dance and song!” Fortunately, this transition is already happening due to bodies like AWFISHNET, who understand the importance ownership of natural heritage plays in safeguarding Africa’s natural resources. Suzanne herself is involved in participatory education theatre, a Kenyan program aimed at artists across the country. The objective is to educate these individuals on the various dimensions of the SSF Guidelines and then work with them to transform the principles into theatre that will resonate with the traditional views and cultures of the country and fast track the change that is needed.
People are right when they say small-scale fishing is a traditional activity: it is an intrinsic part of many African cultures and identities and the SSF Guidelines are consistently explicit about the role culture and identity play in the sustainable governance of Africa’s 13 million km2 of marine and inland waters. As the continent pushes forth with its Agenda 2063, it is critical that all sectors and actors work together towards equitable and sustainable growth.