The FAO Fisheries Department is concerned that Governments hardly consider the fisheries sector in the process of policy and strategy formulation for rural development and that fisheries and aquaculture are not seen as relevant in the context of poverty alleviation. Given the continuing importance of poverty alleviation programmes, particularly in Africa, it was decided to study “Why capture fisheries andaquaculture are included in some poverty reduction programmes and not in others”. The two main research questions addressed under the study were the following: Is the fisheries sector included in the national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), the Country Strategy Papers of the European Union (EU) and other National Development Plans? Why is the sector (not) included?

This Circular represents the findings of a desk study carried out between June 2003 and February 2004 by Drs Andy Thorpe of the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The author was supported in his work by Dr Chris Reid and Denis Becker of the same university. The study was initiated by Raymon van Anrooy and Rolf Willmann of the FAO Development Planning Service (FIPP) and was only made possible with the valuable financial and technical inputs of the Department for International Development (DFID)-funded Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme (SFLP), and particularly of Benoît Horemans, Richard Coutts and Fabio Pittaluga of this programme. The assistance of Ulf Wijkström, Chief, FIPP and the comments made by various participants at an internal FAO seminar on 20 March 2004 are greatly acknowledged by the author.

Abstract

The formulation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) is one of the main conditions for concessional lending by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to developing countries. Nevertheless, while evidence indicates that the fisheries sector can contribute (often markedly at the local level) to improved livelihoods and the achievement of food security in many developing countries, the sector is often neglected in PRSPs. 

This Circular first identifies of 129 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, economies in transition and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) the significance of the fisheries sector as motor of economic growth or likely poverty refuge. Secondly, it examines the extent to which National Development Plans (NDPs), PRSPs, Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) of the European Union and other donor support programmes have presently incorporated the fisheries sector into such documents. Subsequently, a comparison with data indicating the importance of the sector to the national economy (in terms of generating foreign exchange and/or supporting domestic protein consumption levels) enables us to pinpoint those countries with substantive fisheries sectors, but a correspondingly lower than expected degree of sectoral mainstreaming in NDPs, PRSPs and CSPs, and allows us to identify countries which are currently “punching above their weight” in this respect.

Findings are discussed on a regional basis – regional averages suggesting that the sector has been most effectively mainstreamed in Asia (case of PRSPs, NDPs and the World Bank donor support strategies) – closely followed by the African economies and the SIDS. In contrast Latin America, home to two of the top six global fishing nations (Chile and Peru), scores extremely poorly as far as mainstreaming the fisheries sector in PRSPs and NDPs concerns.

Keywords: fisheries, mainstreaming, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, national development plans, Country Assistance Strategies, Country Strategy Papers, employment, trade, consumption, poverty.