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.