{"id":21974,"date":"2026-09-11T22:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/?p=21974"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:02:11","slug":"mundus-maris-presents-the-ssf-academy-in-ghana-at-the-3rd-ssf-summit-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/activites\/mundus-maris-presents-the-ssf-academy-in-ghana-at-the-3rd-ssf-summit-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Mundus maris presents the SSF Academy in Ghana at the 3rd SSF Summit in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Alieu Sowe<\/p><\/div>\n

On 5 and 6 September 2026, small-scale fisher representatives, researchers, civil society organisations, government representatives, and media observers met at FAO headquarters in Rome for the third SSF Summit to exchange experiences and drive forward the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Ensuring Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries.<\/p>\n

The previous day had been reserved for fisher representatives meeting in the framework of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC<\/a>) – Working Group on Fisheries, deliberating on issues of paramount importance in many countries.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Zoila Bustamante C\u00e1rdenas<\/p><\/div>\n

Master of ceremony was Alieu Sowe of the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers (WFF) from The Gambia.<\/p>\n

The opening ceremony was reserved for a mistica featuring Josana Pinto da Costa, Brazil, World Forum of Fishers Peoples (WFFP),\u00a0 Masnuah, Indonesia, (WFFP), and Zoila Bustamante C\u00e1rdenas, Chile, Uni\u00f3n Latinoamericana de la Pesca Artesanal (ULAPA), all speaking passionately in their native tongue and performing introductory rituals and calls for action in support of small-scale fishers the world over.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Carmen Mannarino, South Africa, World Forum of Fishers Peoples (WFFP) and Director of the Masifundise Development Trust,<\/span> offered introductory remarks. She underscored that these were not times for business as usual when the many uncertainties and a lopsided interpretation of the ‘Blue Economy’ by some governments and FAO meant that out of a budget of USD 500 only 2% were allocated in support of small-scale fisheries. She demanded a focus on ocean regeneration instead of an extreme productivist emphasis. She posited a participatory and inclusive approach to governance rather than top down measures benefiting further concentration of power in the hands of fewer and fewer companies.<\/p>\n

Sandra Amezaga, Spain, representing the Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), the AKTEA-Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture Network and the Mulleres Salgadas Network in Galicia, criticised the lack of political will to implement the SSF Guidelines and to offer perspectives for young people. She demanded recognition of women’s status and involvement in overcoming the structural problems holding them back in their aspirations for a better life.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Regional break-out session Africa and North Africa, chaired by Margaret Nakato, Uganda, and Hedia Lajnf Ep Rguai, Tunisia<\/p><\/div>\n

The ensuing regional breakout sessions were among the most useful part of the entire SSF Summit as they enabled some real exchanges among participate and peer learning from a range of experiences with efforts to implement the SSF Guidelines in practice. Quite a number of contributions claimed more attention to gender issues and that often times women strongly represented in trade and marketing were insufficiently invited to the elaboration of National Plans of Action for the SSF Guidelines or other mechanisms to address the needs of SSF.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Emelia Edwina Dzamfi Nortey and Cornelia E Nauen<\/p><\/div>\n

Among others, Emelia Edwina Dzamfi Nortey, Manager of the Daa Fisheries Training Centre in Kokrobite, Ghana, reported on the new Fisheries and Aquaculture Act. While fishers and women in processing and marketing were now called to validate the draft regulations to operationalise the Act, not much or no consultation had been happening at the beginning of drafting.<\/p>\n

Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris<\/em> complemented the account by reporting on the launch of the SSF Academy in Ghana as a partnership between Mundus maris<\/em> asbl and the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG) to support operationalising the SSF Guidelines. More specifically, the Academy provided training to facilitators in the four coastal regions of the country to animate monthly dialogue meetings with fishers, women in processing and marketing, crew, youth, fisheries officers and any other interested actor. These meetings in 8 pilot villages had started to identify pressing issues and were moving on to tackle solutions together. This was a concrete contribution towards starting to practise co-management that was called for in the new legislation.<\/p>\n

Representatives of small-scale fisher organisations and their supporter from Kenya, Guinea, Botswana, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, and Uganda, spoke vividly about the specific experiences with co-management or a lack of it. There was no need to create new structures and strategies, but rather make better use of what’s there. In this respect, Editrudith Lukanga of EMEDO in Tanzania referred to the recent SSF Africa Summit and emphasised implementation. The representative of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Directorate of Cape Verde expressed the expectation that a broad collaboration between researchers, fishers and the administration which had identified key issues would now lead to broad cooperation to ensure a balance between marine protection and use of resources.\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>

More speakers, including from Namibia, C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, Congo, The Gambia and Seychelles added to the chorus demanding greater enforcement of monitoring, resource protection and capacity strengthening of men, women and youth to ensure small-scale fishers had a chance for prosperous futures.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Don Carlos Martinez Mendez and Marvin Fonseca Borr\u00e1s<\/p><\/div>\n

The ensuing ’round table conversation’ was all about sharing experiences of good practices, challenges, and lessons learned from collaborative efforts to implement the SSF Guidelines through a Human Rights Based Approach.<\/p>\n

We heard, among others from Don Carlos Martinez Mendez, Red de \u00e1reas
\nmarinas de pesca responsable y territorios marinos de vida de Costa Rica
\nand Marvin Fonseca Borr\u00e1s, Cooperativa Autogestionaria para la Solidaridad social (CoopeSoliDar) from Costa Rica reported that the government seats in the national congresses about how to implement the SSF Guidelines had remained empty and the struggle for supportive draft legislation was still a great challenge.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Masnuah and Marthin Hadiwinata<\/p><\/div>\n

Masnuah of WFFP and Marthin Hadiwinata of Ekologi Maritim Indonesia (Ekomarin) explained that the Indonesian government had accepted the SSF Guidelines. But lumping together small-scale fishers and 60 t vessels in the new omnibus legislation opened the sluice gates to neoliberal amendments that were likely harming small-scale fishers and preventing real participation in tailored investments. ‘Blue Economy’ was a sort of war cry treating SSF merely as objects, but barely recognised their contribution to food production and food security.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Christian Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

Several other colleagues, including from the Philippines, Canada and elsewhere shared interesting insights into their advances or, conversely, challenges to practising the principles of the SSF Guidelines on the ground.<\/p>\n

Christian Adams of the West Coast SSF Forum criticised the government for using GDP as a justification for decisions rather than to right to food. He noted the Ocean Economy Master Plan was no law, the provisions of which could be upheld in court cases. That had been the case in earlier struggles against Shell even though the court cases took a long time. Now, the fishers and civil society organisations felt they had to take to the streets to push for basic rights.<\/p>\n

The rich and diverse open debate provided many insights from local approaches to defending the rights of men, women and youth in small-scale fisheries and underscore their significant contributions to high quality food, local food security and even export earnings in some cases. This space also allowed Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris<\/em> to provide more details about the Small-Scale Fisheries Academy in Ghana. It was already showing its potential for practising co-management thanks to capacity strengthening of facilitators in beach landing places in collaboration with fisheries officers. Cornelia also disseminated an update of the policy brief<\/a> produced at the launch of the Academy<\/a> in July. That drew quite some attention and made that day very productive.<\/p>\n<\/div>

According to the agenda<\/a>, the final day of the SSF Summit was dedicated primarily to sessions with governments and focused on creating a series of superstructures around the SSF Guidelines.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Qu Dongyu, Director General of FAO<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately, what had been intended by the organisers as a high level opening session with four fisheries ministers to shore up more support for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines turned into a scandal. While recognising in reading his script tha, according to the large study ‘Hidden Harvest Illumuninated’, SSF contributed 40% of global fish food production, FAO’s Director General Qu Dongyu then went off into a rand suggesting that no more natural fish was needed, instead people with scientific training were needed, while SSF were good for the museum. Remarkably for a senior public official he unconditionally hailed industrial aquaculture in China and other parts of Asia as the non plus ultra that would double, triple, quadruple production, even produce 10 times more and faster than nature, and with better nutritional value. Fisheries was no good for the environment and no good for money.<\/p>\n

Dr. Qu Dongyu might even have a point when referring to highly subsidised industrial fisheries, including in his home country. But why would he want to offend the labour of more than 50 million people, most in Asia? Recovering from the shock, several SSF representatives in the remainder of the summit rejected these utterings and demanded an apology. It was pointed out that the remarks were not only offensive to the summit participants and all small-scale fishers, but disregarded also all official statements adopted by FAO member states and official bodies.\u00a0Are we heading to a brave new world?<\/p>\n

That overshadowed all other sessions on Sunday, 6 September, whether covering national or regional plans of action, not to mention the renewed Global Strategic Framework in support of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines (SSF-GSF).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dawda Saine of CAOPA, The Gambia, at the COFI 37 Speakers Corner reporting about the SSF Summit (Photo CAOPA)<\/p><\/div>\n

But the disturbing remarks in the morning could not prevent the undercurrent of energy and determination from emerging again thanks to the sense of solidarity in the room, fuelled by rich human exchange and a strong motivation for more collaboration. That is what those Summit participants staying on for the FAO Committee of Fisheries (COFI 37) in the following week brought across at the Speakers Corner and during COFI itself. It’s worth to keep working nurturing this spirit and to extend the collaboration for ocean regeneration and prosperous small-scale fisheries.<\/p>\n

Text and pictures by C.E. Nauen, unless indicated otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academie-de-la-peche-artisanale","category-activites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22034,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21974\/revisions\/22034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mundusmaris.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}