On the occasion of an online meeting of ATLAFCO, artisanal fisheries professional organisations are calling on African governments to ratify and implement the ILO Convention 188 on Work in Fishing and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries
Since the Covid 19 pandemic hit African shores, the Confederation of African Artisanal Fisheries Organizations (CAOPA) and its members have mobilized to remind their decision-makers of the importance of fisheries for food security and ask them to take urgent measures in consultation with the sector so that fishers, fishmongers and women fish processors can continue their activities. As they have already pointed out since April through a letter to the governments of the 25 CAOPA countries, this sector has suffered terribly from the restrictive measures to combat Covid 19, but the professional organisations have nevertheless taken initiatives to raise awareness on the necessary hygiene and distancing measures. "The Covid 19 crisis must be an opportunity to respond to the long-standing challenges in artisanal fisheries and to improve the hygiene and working conditions of the men and women in the sector in the long term," they stress.
On the occasion of a webinar of the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation among African States bordering the Atlantic Ocean (ATLAFCO) entitled "The Need to Protect Fishermen during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Promoting 'Marine Medicine'" on 13 August, CAOPA issued recommendations on how to improve these working conditions. In particular, by taking up two basic tools, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 188 concerning Work in Fishing, and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for securing Small-scale Fisheries, the professional artisanal fishers call on their governments to ratify C188 and put in place measures to implement it. Nevertheless, this convention does not cover the entire fish value chain, explains CAOPA: women, though present throughout the chain and active especially on land, face precarious working conditions. This concern was taken into account in 2014 by the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries, in which Chapter 6 deals with social development, employment and decent work. CAOPA thus calls on African governments to implement these guidelines through national action plans developed in a transparent, participatory and gender-sensitive manner.
At the end of the ATLAFCO webinar, recommendations, including CAOPA's requests, were made and will be published in the coming weeks.
Notes:
For more information on tools to improve working conditions in the fish value chain:
Read the entire CAOPA intervention
Click here for the text of the Work in Fishing Convention 188. Only four African states have ratified it: Congo (2014), Angola (2016), Namibia (2018), and Senegal (2018).
ICSF developed in 2007 a guide to understanding Convention 188.
FAO Voluntary Guidelines for securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries. FAO is developing a guide for social sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture value chains. CFFA and CAOPA drafted a joint contribution in July 2019.
Banner photo: Some women from CAOPA during the November 2019 General Assembly in Mbour, Senegal. Mamadou Aliou Diallo/REJOPRA.