POLICY POINTERS Facilitating participatory policy-making in the fisheries sector in the Caribbean The fisheries sector is vital to food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, yet policy-making and implementation in the sector had historically been poor, with little concern for either the interests of small-scale fisherfolk or for the long-term sustainability of fisheries. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has been working with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) for several years to address these issues. A central feature of this support has been to facilitate the engagement of fisherfolk in the development of policies affecting the fisheries sector. This builds on a growing realisation that effective policy-making requires buy-in from those whose livelihoods are affected by the policies, and that this in turn requires that people at the grass-roots level are engaged in the discussions and all the phases of the policy-making process – not just having them present at meetings, not just hearing from them, not just influencing policy but being involved in its implementation.
KEY POINTS • C onsider making more policy data open so that it can be used by stakeholders. • Look into possible ICT applications that may be relevant to agriculture. CTA runs the ICT4Ag website, which showcases several such applications. In addition there is a regular ICT4Ag magazine on use of ICT in agriculture. • Invest in developing information and knowledge management skills through school and university curricula, while offering refresher courses to existing staff. • Encourage government officials and policy-makers to engage in policy discussions and debate with stakeholders such as farmers’ and fisherfolk’s organisations and civil society.
“CTA and its partners have worked together to engage decision-makers and stakeholders on a series of policy issues”
MAIN FINDINGS • Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a key role in facilitating policy dialogue in island communities, ensuring broad participation even when individuals cannot attend the physical meetings due to resourcing or geography. • It is important to recognise the different features and uses of ICTs: – E-mail is a key technology for engaging a broad range of stakeholders in discussions and debates because it is simple to use and familiar to most people. This seems particularly true in island communities, as has been shown in the Pacific with a CTA project supporting the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the development of their Green Growth Policy framework amongst government ministries.
Achieving this requires that fisherfolk are capable of formulating their own demands and of making sure their demands are communicated to policy-makers. To contribute to this, in the early stages CTA and CRFM supported the dynamic process initiated by fisherfolk’s groups to create a Caribbean Regional Network of Fisherfolk Organisations (CNFO). This included support for establishing and formalising national fisherfolk’s organisations and training fisherfolk’s leaders in how to manage their networks, to use communications tools to their best effect and to conduct advocacy work. With support from CTA, CNFO, CRFM, the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and the University of the West Indies have worked together to engage decisionmakers and stakeholders on a series of policy issues. Topics addressed include illegal fishing, regional fish trade and governance of fisheries at regional, national and local levels. In 2013 the group met at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture to discuss their feedback on the Common Caribbean Fisheries Policy; their observations were then presented to the ministers of fisheries. But while these workshops and events go some way towards giving fisherfolk a voice in the policy process,
there is a need to broaden participation beyond the few people who are able to attend such meetings and to continue the dialogue between times. To do this, CRFM, with support from CTA, has developed a knowledge platform comprising a website, use of social media and e-discussions. The combination of the online services provided by CRFM gives fisherfolk and other stakeholders access to a reference resource on policies through the website; raises awareness of the latest debates, events and policies through social media; and facilitates debate amongst stakeholders through the e-discussion platform, DGroups. CRFM has put a lot of effort into promoting awareness of the project amongst stakeholders, including policy-makers, government officials, fisherfolk and communitybased organisations; identifying potential topics and participants for e-discussion; using the DGroups platform for both formal meetings (e.g. CRFM Executive Committee and Working Groups) and informal discussions; and encouraging use of social media, including Facebook (facebook.com/CarFisheries), YouTube (Youtube.com/user/TheCRFM) and Twitter (twitter.com/CaribFisheries) to share information amongst stakeholders.
– But engaging youth calls for use of Web 2.0 technologies, such as social media, blogs and wikis. This has been highlighted by CTA’s work in the Agriculture, Rural Development and Youth in the Information Society (ARDYIS) project, which aims at raising interest in agriculture amongst young people. CTA is supporting a hackathon in the Caribbean to involve young people in the development of ICT applications addressing agricultural problems.
“E-mail is a key technology for engaging a broad range of stakeholders in discussions and debates” • Structured capacity building is needed to support the organisations facilitating policy debates and platforms using ICTs: – A lot of ground work has to be done to build basic skills in information and knowledge management (KM) before starting on more sophisticated webbased approaches. CTA has developed a KM scan that enables organisations and networks to identify
their KM and information and communication management needs. The KM scan has been used in the Caribbean with groups such as the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers (CANROP) to provide a framework for planning future KM interventions. – Engaging a diverse audience in discussions around any topic requires dedicated attention from skilled facilitators, just as in physical meetings.
“CTA is supporting a hackathon in the Caribbean to involve young people in the development of ICT applications addressing agricultural problems” – Building a self-sustaining movement for participatory policy-making takes considerable time and must pass through a natural evolutionary process – implying the need for long-term financial and technical support. – There are few people with KM skills in the region. CTA has collaborated with international partners to develop short courses and online materials for capacity strengthening in information and communication management. A short introductory course on KM for Agricultural and Rural Development will be available by the end of 2014.
ABOUT THIS POLICY POINTER
ABOUT CTA
This policy pointer was prepared by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) as a contribution to policy discussions at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2014. The aim is to highlight policy actions needed to encourage and support uptake of findings of work supported by CTA and its partners.
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities.
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