El Congreso Mundial de Pesca de este año en Adelaide, Australia, se convocó en formato híbrido, una tarea gigantesca para asegurarse de que las tres corrientes paralelas de conferencias in situ y las cuatro sesiones paralelas bajo demanda pudieran tener lugar y ser atendidas.

Aprobado por los equipos científicos y organizadores locales por una mezcla interesante y un funcionamiento fluido. Pero debido a que estaban sucediendo tantas cosas, era difícil seguir incluso los flujos de sesiones más relevantes para nuestro trabajo.

Our submission was made part of a stream titled «People – women in fisheries, workforce, investment, safety and building capacity» which had four consecutive sessions. Our contribution focused on the early experiences of the small-scale fisheries academy in Senegal and narrated how it celebrates local culture and supports men and women in their aspirations for better lives in the face of multiple challenges.

These challenges are at individual and collective levels, arising for example from overexploitation of resources, weak public services, difficult access to credit and markets, among others. By offering a safe space for respectful multi-stakeholder dialogue academy learners develop operational change journey maps to address these challenges through individual and collective action.

The early results show that improvements are possible as people experience in practice that it is possible to implement orientations contained in the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). Click here to see the registration on our YouTube channel.

In the same session, Nicole Franz of FAO presented efforts to develop national implementation plans for the SSF Guidelines and help translate the principles into practice. The Academy in Senegal is a step on this road.