Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector Strategy 2017-2021.

The Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector Strategy is a national sectoral strategy of The Gambia for the period 2017-2021.
Its vision is for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector to be recognized as one of the three most critical contributors to national economic growth, food and nutrition security, employment creation and exchanges earnings. Through the recognition of fisheries and aquaculture potentials as natural economic resources and by ensuring responsible and ecologically sustained fishing and aquaculture practices, the strategy mission is to optimally harness the Gambia’s fisheries and aquaculture resources and to deliver employment, foreign exchange support, food and nutrition security in achieving accelerated national growth and development. This will include, among other things, reviewing fisheries and aquaculture's roles in this endeavor and in the eradication, especially, of gender poverty in the Gambia, enhancing sustainability. On the basis of the fact that over 80% of employed people in fish processing, either artisanal and/or industrial, and in aquaculture are women, the easiest way to harnessing the great latent energy of women is in the fishing sector. In reason of the female involvement in household economics, this would bring an overall beneficial economic effect on growth and income, food security and livelihood improvements.
The current national fishing and aquaculture internal and external environments count on weak policy, legal and strategic platforms; moreover, those activities are energy intensive and the energy cost remains high and the Country faces the inability to control the territorial integrity of its marine space, leading to significant national economic losses of fish stocks; On the other side, there would be opportunities of very high fish stocks of invaluable quality, vast appropriate lands and ecological spaces for quality aquaculture in an ever growing export market. It has, thus, become strategically imperative to revisit fisheries and aquaculture as natural resources of significant developmental potentials.
To this end, the strategy sets out 5 strategic pillars, some of which are traversal and cover both Fisheries Strategies and Aquaculture Sub-sector Strategies: 1. Institutional Restructuring, Rearrangements and Capacity Strengthening; 2. Legal and Policy Reforms; 3. Key Stakeholder Capacity Building and Sensitization; 4. Inter-sectoral linkages and optimization of overall value chain; and 5. Collaboration and Partnership. Each one of them aims at different goals.
As far as the Fisheries Strategies are concerned, the first strategic pillar aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of Fisheries (through audits, research and data management, the increasing of the territorial water policing and monitoring and enforcement capacity of the Department of Fisheries, the introduction of fishery studies) and to increase investments and export potential of fishery products (through partnerships with the Food Safety and Quality Authority and the National Nutrition Agency for the achievement and maintenance of international quality and safety standards for fisheries and aquaculture products and the introduction of investment incentives for private investors in the areas of fish processing, quality control, packaging, repair and maintenance services for fishing crafts and outboard engines). The second strategic pillar aims to ensure comprehensive and coherent legal, policy and regulatory frameworks of the Fisheries sector (through its review, update and harmonization). The third strategic pillar aims to improve the capacity of key sector stakeholders through capacity needs assessment (the National Sole Fishery Co-management Committee (NASCOM), the Try Oyster Women’s Association, the Gambia Navy and The Association of Gambian Fishing Companies, GAMFIDA, Fisheries Observers); to increase public awareness on the fisheries regulations and policies and socioeconomic benefits of the fisheries sector (through sensitization programmes and the increasing of the participation of indigenous Gambians in the artisanal and industrial fishing industries).The fourth strategic pillar has the goal to increase government and donor budgetary support to the Fisheries sector, to improve linkages with key sectors such as manufacturing and tourism for employment creation, foreign exchange earnings and poverty reduction, especially among women. The fifth strategic pillar seeks to improve collaboration, coordination and partnership with key national, regional and international stakeholders of the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
With regards to the Aquaculture Sub-sector Strategies, the first strategic pillar aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Aquaculture Unit, through its upgrade and full operationalization, the creation of a comprehensive aquaculture investment programme, the operationalization of a research and data management function/unit and system for the fisheries sector. The third strategic pillar seeks to improve, though a capacity need assessment, the capacity of key sector stakeholders in the aquaculture sub-sector. The fourth strategic pillar's objective is to increase government and donor budgetary support to the aquaculture subsector; to improve livelihoods and reduce poverty among the youth and women; to optimize the utilization of natural resources; to maximize the utilization of agricultural byproducts in aquaculture.
The coordination of the implementation of the strategic plan 2017-2021 will be done through a coordination committee and a technical committee. Beside the existing resource mobilization mechanisms (national budget initiative and other income sources of the Fisheries Development Fund such as fees and fines), the focus will be increased on collaboration and strategic partnerships with key national and international stakeholders including donors, engaging them in partnerships and bankable project/funding proposal development.