On 27 October 2015, Mrs. Marième Diagne Talla, Acting Permanent Secretary of SRFC met with a delegation from Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) at the SRFC headquarters. FiTI is a global multi-stakeholder initiative, which aims at enhancing responsible and sustainable fisheries through transparency and participation.
Mr. Steve Biermann, Acting Director General and Director of the Anti-Corruption Programme of FiTI presented the two main pillars of the initiative: transparency and participation. In terms of transparency, the initiative strives to publish reliable and generally accepted information which is made accessible to the public following a consultative process in the form of national reports drafted on the basis of a coherent framework. Regarding the principle of participation, FiTI collects and disseminates information while ensuring its credibility through a deliberative process involving all stakeholders concerned (government, professional fisheries organizations, civil society).
The initiative, commenced in May 2015, is currently in its concept phase and is financed by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania which is among SRFC member States.
The global initiative is open to all States that wish to participate and the meeting helped to define the role which SRFC could play during the concept phase as well as the operational phase. In light of its sub-regional dimension, SRFC has indeed a key role to play in the potential enrolment of its member States to this initiative.
During the meeting, areas for collaboration were identified between FiTI and SRFC projects, particularly with regard to the collection and publication of reliable data under the WARFP’s Dashboard project currently being finalized. Possibilities for partnership were identified and will be discussed in detail at a later stage. Furthermore, SRFC was invited to participate in the Forum organized by FiTI in early 2016 in Nouakchott. A preparatory meeting will be organized for member States in this regard.
