The organizing committee including the IPC Working Group on Fisheries, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the SSF Hub, SwedBio, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) drafted a concept note for the SSF Summit 2024 based on input received after the first SSF Summit and have been engaging with various SSF actors to gather feedback in order to plan the next SSF Summit.
Below is a summary of inputs received.
Date of Summit
The SSF Summit 2024 will be held on 5-7 July in Rome before the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) 36th Session.
Expected Outcomes
In discussion:
- Strengthening small-scale artisanal fishers, fish workers, and their affiliated organizations
- Improving communication between small-scale fisheries organizations and other key partners
- Better prepare all actors to contribute to the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, in line with their guiding principles and human rights
- Need to clearly identify what will be strengthened for the small-scale fishers
- Consider outcome on a clear and structured way for small-scale fishers and fish workers to engage their respective governments and other relevant partners to implement the SSF Voluntary Guidelines.
- Promote coherence and the development of a common strategy
- Government participation
Priority Topics
So far, we have heard that the following are priority topics for discussion at the Summit:
- Achievements in gender equality in SSF
- Human rights-based approach to SSF
- SSF governance: secure of tenure and customary rights, preferential access to fishing resources
- Food security and poverty alleviation
- Transparency and accountability in fisheries management
- Financial and digital literacy among fishers
- Access to information and technology; monitoring mechanisms to measure effectiveness in protecting ssf communities
- Sub-national NPAO-SSFs
- Empowering communities and indigenous peoples in resources management, education and traditional knowledge; integration of indigenous knowledge
- Effective policies, environmental and social safeguards to protect traditional fishing, manage pollution, environmental degradation, climate change impacts
- National coordination for small-scale fisheries management, data, and resource mobilization.
- Improved safety at sea
- Combating illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing (IUU)
- Social protections and social services
- Youth engagement in the sector
- Stock taking and score cards - the contribution of small-scale fishers to global goals, food security and nutrition, and SSF Guidelines.
- Cold chain solutions for SSF
- Housing, sanitation, education, social development needs
- Biodiversity
- Blue economy
Participants
Proposed participants for the Summit include:
- Fishers and community members
- Representatives of fisher organizations
- Artisanal fishing professionals
- Consider including private sector and market operators interested and read to invest in small-scale fisheries
- Consider including the media to deepen the understanding of the importance of small-scale fisheries
- Governments play a crucial role in fisheries policy implementation, their presence is vital in discussion on fisheries topics
Other thoughts:
- Ensure that the SSF Summit serves as a political forum for SSF
Other Details
Other details to discuss include:
- Objectives
- The Format of the Event
- Incorporating a virtual component, alongside the in-person session
- Fisher only sessions
- Orient discussions towards a common goal: Implementing the SSF Guidelines effectively.
- One Ocean Hub empatheatre play
- Pathways between Summits
- Assessments of status of implementation of Voluntary SSF Guidelines
- Technical weinbars on relevant topics to small-scale fisheries
- Regional snapshots of small-scale fisheries and their socio-economic contributions
- Evaluate the implementation of policies and seek government support