BELIZE CITY, BELIZE, TUESDAY, November 6, 2012

Thousands of fisherfolk from across the Caribbean are poised to benefit greatly from a unique and timely Euro 117,956 (US$150,000) project which will help them develop a more sustainable and professional industry, and improve their quality of life as well as the nutrition they obtain from seafood.

The project, entitled Implementing the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy: Positioning and Engaging Fisher Folk Organizations, is to be undertaken through Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), which has recently been awarded a 12-month contract by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA).

The agreement was signed by Milton Haughton, Executive Director of CRFM and Michael Hailu, CTA Director on 18 October 2012.

Through the project, Caribbean fisherfolk will be continuously engaged with decision-makers, as they increase their participation in the formulation of key regional fisheries policies.

The partner organizations, CRFM and CTA, have been working together in the support of the dynamic process initiated by fisherfolk groups to create a Caribbean Regional Network of Fisherfolk Organizations (CNFO), which was established in 2009. The direct beneficiaries of this new project will be the national fisherfolk organizations (NFOs).

Today, fishers from across the region grapple with limited opportunities to engage policymakers, inadequate networking at national and regional levels, as well as a limited capacity to advance their interests as stakeholders in the industry.

This new project will help to address these problems by engaging the various parties in a one-week consultation on the implementation and mainstreaming of regional fisheries policies into small-scale fisheries governance arrangements in the Caribbean.

Via this process, fisherfolk organizations are expected to come up with common positions on the finalization and adoption of the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy, the Castries (St. Lucia) Declaration on IUU Fishing, and other relevant fisheries agreements.

The CRFM-CTA project will engage executives as well as members of national fisherfolk organizations in 15 ACP member countries who are part of the CRFM/CARIFORUM group, as well as representatives from partnering organizations.

Fisherfolk will, through this process, build insight into fisheries ecosystems and the likely impacts of the fishing techniques they use on various ecosystems, while expanding their knowledge on common fisheries management tools which take into account climate change and disaster risk reduction.

The project is also expected to positively contribute to sound, key regional fisheries policies that take into account small-scale fisher folk positions and their proposals.

Footnote:

Michael Hailu is director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. CTA works to improve the flow of information on agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. In 2011 IFPRI and CTA launched collaborative activities in several areas, including the CTA’s Brussels Development Briefings, which are bimonthly policy dialogues for policymakers, development practitioners, researchers, and others.

Below is an interview he gave Insights published March 22 2012.

Talking with Michael Hailu

by Heidi Fritschel

What’s the biggest development issue you see?

Of course, the big issues are poverty and hunger. There are policy and institutional constraints in addressing these issues, but I would say one really important thing is capacity. This means having well-trained and appropriately remunerated nationals at different levels—technicians, researchers, policy people—with adequate skills and resources so they can make a difference on the ground. We talk about so many new technologies and approaches, but there aren’t enough people to actually make them happen.

How can we address it?

Governments cannot do it alone. Private-sector engagement and linking farmers to markets can make a significant difference. If agriculture continues as a subsistence activity, then we won’t really get away from where we are. But if people see it as a viable business that can improve their livelihoods, young people will be interested in staying on the farm and doing more. It’s critical to look at the value chain and find where more of the benefits can go to the smallholder farmers. With higher incomes, they can invest more in their farms and also become consumers contributing to the rural economy. The whole lifestyle in the rural areas can be improved—infrastructure, health, education, services—so that the rural space becomes much more livable.

CTA works to improve information for developing countries. Why is this so important?

Timely and up-to-date information is critical in learning about new techniques or accessing markets for smallholder farmers. CTA facilitates access to information and exchange of knowledge at various levels—from farmers’ groups to extension workers, researchers, trainers, educators, and policymakers. Lessons from policy and practice from one country may be useful to another country. And in many instances—for example, in the remote villages of Gabon’s tropical forest—CTA’s Spore magazine is the only source of up-to-date written material available to extension workers and villagers.

What excites you most about the work CTA is doing?

We recently launched a new strategy identifying three key priorities for CTA until 2015—strengthening regional agricultural policy processes, supporting priority value chains, and strengthening the information, communication, and knowledge management capacities of institutions and networks in the countries where we work. We are one of the few international organizations devoted to facilitating information and knowledge exchange—using modern information and communication technologies as well as more traditional means—to support agricultural development, particularly smallholder agriculture. From bringing together farmers’ organizations, policymakers, and researchers to debate important policy issues to helping rural youth exploit the potential of information and communication technologies, CTA does work that benefits a wide range of stakeholders in the agriculture and rural development sector.

How did you get into international development?

To be honest, it was kind of accidental. I was in the university in Ethiopia during turbulent political times in the country, which brought a lot of uncertainty and an insecure situation. An ad was posted for a job at ILCA [International Livestock Center for Africa, now the International Livestock Research Institute]. There were about a thousand young university students interested in the job, and they picked 10. I was one. Although initially it was accidental, I’ve always been interested in development and in working for the betterment of people’s lives. So it’s very much in line with my own philosophy and values.

You grew up in Ethiopia—what meal do you remember most clearly from your childhood?

My favorite dish is doro wat, which is chicken in a spicy sauce. I think my mom makes the best doro wat ever. If you are a reasonably well-to-do family, it’s a typical meal you might have once a week or a couple of times a month. In a rural household, you might have it once or twice a year, during holidays like Easter or New Year. Some people like kitfo—raw meat. Many Ethiopians say that’s what they love, but I still like my mom’s chicken.

For more on this story go to:

http://insights.ifpri.info/2012/03/talking-with-michael-hailu/