1. Social development issues in fisheries
World Bank ARD Hub Training on Fisheries & Aquaculture Nha Trang, Viet Nam, January 2008
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2. Outline & Scope
The case for social development in fisheries and aquaculture
Principles for investing in social development in fishing-dependent communities
3. Implementing the principles: case studies
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3. Multiple dimensions of poverty in fishing communities
Income and asset
poverty
Fisherfolk not always the ‘poorest of the poor’ in income terms
Physical asset profiles strongly mediated by rights to land, mobility, uncertain production system
Vulnerability
Social exclusion
Synthesising recent case studies of poverty in fishing communities:
Social exclusion: inequality and ‘elite capture’ of rights in CBFM, poor access to services (inc. health, education, finance, justice)
Vulnerability due to insecure rights, uncertain production systems, high physical, economic and regulatory or institutional risks
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4. Vulnerability and incentives for resource conservation
Risk perception: Fish stock decline may be low in fisherfolk’s risk-hierarchies
Social exclusion: fishers not able to gain the support of external agents to improve rights and access to services
Overall outcome: fishers lack incentives and means to manage resources, even when granted to them through ‘rights-based fishing’.
Policy implications: Incentives to claim and defend aquatic property rights may require vulnerability to be reduced and other rights to be strengthened
Hierarchies of risk: For fishers, the risk of fishing-induced stock collapse may be (or be perceived as) low and distant compared to the risks of death or ill-health (malaria, AIDS, drowning) theft or loss of assets (fishing gear, livestock, cash earnings), or of climate-driven resource variations…
Consequences of Social exclusion: fishers not able to gain the support of external agents (e.g. donors, government) to reduce vulnerability, improve rights, access to services etc.
Policy implications: Incentives to claim and defend aquatic rights (e.g. sea tenure) may first (or simultaneously) require vulnerability to be reduced and other rights to be strengthened
In the face of high uncertainty and vulnerability, people don’t save – whether it is money (e.g. John Stuart Mill, 1838) or fish.
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5. Policy & investment principles
Invest in social development initiatives in fishing communities that are compatible with strengthening governance.
Empower fishing communities to be more effective partners in community-based fisheries management.
Expand the scope of rights-based fishing from aquatic property rights reform to encompass broader rights – including basic human rights
Integrate fisheries sector policy objectives with wider poverty reduction policies to help reconcile poverty reduction goals with responsible fisheries
From this diagnosis we can derive four priciples to guide poilcy and investment. These four principles seek to address the need to address the two dimensions of poverty that we think most seriously reduce the ability of fishing people to benefit from develompent opportunities and to make contributsion to poverty reduction. These are empowerment or social inclusion and reduced vulnerability.
1 - Social development initiatives in fishing communities should be compatible with strengthening governance, because resource over-exploitation threatens human and economic development, deepens poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion
2 - Empowering fishing communities, by fostering equity through social inclusion and community development, makes them more effective partners in community-based fisheries management.
3 - Expanding the scope of rights-based fishing from aquatic property rights reform to encompass the strengthening of human rights among fisherfolk will help incentivise their participation in resource governance
4 -Integrating fisheries sector policy objectives with wider poverty reduction policies, such as PRSPs, will help reconcile poverty reduction goals with responsible fisheries
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6. Social development interventions that can also help to strengthen resource governance:
e.g. Improving health in fishing-dependent communities
High levels of morbidity and mortality due to:
Accidents and drowning
Water-borne diseases (Malaria, cholera, schistosomiasis)
AIDS-related illness
Loss of labour productivity and human capital
Shortened time-horizons, reduced incentives for stewardship
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7. HIV prevalence in fishing communities
(AIDS vol. 19, 2005)
National adult seroprevalence (%)
Fisherfolk seroprevalence (%)
Number of HIV positive fishers
Kenya
6.7
30.5
45 000
Thailand
1.5
6.9
24 000
Indonesia
0.1
1.4
72 000
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8. Mobilising community response to HIV/AIDS
Pointe-Noire, seaport and economic capital, Republic of Congo
 Base-Agip is the most significant fishing community in Congo
Total population of Base AGIP ~ 3,000 inhabitants from different countries: DRC, Benin, Ghana, Sao Tome & Principes, Angola…
Marketing involves fishmongers (women and men ) from different provinces and neighbouring countries
Community Response to HIV/AIDS Prevention and impact mitigation
SFLP helped link fisheries professional organisations with health-sector projects funded by Congo National AIDS Commission (World Bank grant);
Following KAP studies, community response is implemented by trained peer-educators supported by social communication activities:
HIV Prevention:
advocacy for a continuing community mobilization to fight HIV/AIDS,
promotion of prevention services within the community,
focus group on basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS,
discussions on HIV/AIDS through movies, theatre
AIDS Impact mitigation:
Care of PLWA through mobile Treatment Centre;
Participatory identification of livelihood strategies and opportunities (including link with MFI) for Income-generating activities for PLWA and AIDS-affected HH
Documenting results to inform the National AIDS Council strategy for interventions in other fishing communities
 Fishing communities were included as target groups for HIV prevention and AIDS care when evidence was presented that they are particularly vulnerable
The high degree of community ownership of the response to HIV/AIDS makes successful prevention and mitigation much more likely
Community ownership built by strong social communication (e.g. forum theatre)
PLWA with continuing IGAs are now less stigmatised – still valued as members of society
Next step: bring improved treatment and care services to PLWA in fishing communities, including ART.
A WorldFish/FAO SIDA project in four African countries explores these and other interventions to reduce vulnerability
Base Agip, Pointe Noire, Congo
DFID/FAO SFLP (
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9. 3. Strengthening human rights to incentivize participatory resource management
Case study: ICSF ‘Rights and Responsibilities in Asian coastal fisheries’
Gender equity
Children’s rights
Rights of migrants
Rights to decent work (e.g. safety at sea)
Rights to coastal land for settlement and fishing operations
Responsibilities to participate in resource governance and respect conservation
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10. Summary: Social development investments that don’t increase fishing capacity
Diversification, education, skill development
Income & asset
poverty
Improve access to health services
Secure land tenure
Organisational Development
Labour rights
Migrant’s rights
Gender equity
prsp
Social exclusion
Vulnerability
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11. Implications for sequencing investments
Diagnosis
identification of drivers of poverty and overfishing
participatory risk mapping
To inform:
Stakeholder-based adaptive management planning
Addressing:
Entitlement failures through social inclusion & vulnerability reduction
Institutional failures by strengthening regulatory capacity
Market failures by investing in upgrading supply chains and addressing aquatic property rights
In most very poor countries, to benefit the wider economy through improved economic performance of the fishery sector, you will first have to address major entitlement failures. This won’t always be the case for middle-income countries, although where inequality is high and fishers are marginalised, this may still be necessary.
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