The October 2021 Thematic Webinar of the V2V Programme was delivered by Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris on the topic ‘The Small-Scale Fisheries Academy as an operational support to the SSF Guidelines’. The talk places the emphasis on some empirical experiences with how it is possible to act on the rich analyses and diagnostics on SSF that have become available. It is focused principally on strengthening the capacities of women and men in SSF to partake actively in shaping the implementation of the Guidelines.

Thankfully through initiatives such as the research collaborations ‘Too big to ignore’ and the V2V partnership more attention is being paid to small-scale fisheries, which are often not quite so small given that they account perhaps for as much as 50% of the wild caught fish for human consumption. They certainly account for more than 90% of the labour force in the fisheries sector world-wide. But continued heavy subsidies to industrial overfishing and scant processes explicitly geared to ensure the participation of women and men working in different segments of the value chain put considerable pressure on the their livelihoods. How to support their efforts for improving their lives and that of their families and communities is therefore of great interest and can contribute to implementing key features of the SSF Guidelines. Click on the poster announcement to watch the talk.