African Voice
Stop Illegal Fishing works to strengthen the ‘African Voice’ in international fisheries fora by supporting African governments in formulating and promoting common positions in these negotiations.
Such pan‐African collaboration is important in order to ensure that international agreements better take into account African needs and contexts which in turn provide greater incentives for African nations to ratify and implement the agreements and thereby contribute to sustainable and profitable fisheries in Africa. Improving fisheries governance will bring benefits for the continent in terms of more sustainable livelihoods, increased food security, increased revenues to the national budget and long‐term viability of the fisheries sector.
Since 2007 Stop Illegal Fishing has been working with African States and partners to develop a relevant, coherent and continent‐wide voice in international fishery processes.
We have achieved this by establishing a greater legitimacy for the African Group, through strengthening the facilitating role of the African Union, NEPAD and their associated programmes and working groups, in both the preparations and through their physical representation at the negotiation
Stop Illegal Fishing have been active in a number of negotiations and fora including:
- First Southern And Eastern African Forum To Counter IUU Fishing, 2007
- FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI)
- African Union
- The First International Symposium on FishCRIME, 2015, enabled an informed policy debates in Africa to generate home‐grown thinking on the relatively new thinking around fisheries crime
- FAO technical consultations on voluntary guidelines or action plans, and legally binding agreements (FAO Compliance Agreement, FAO International Plan of Action on IUU, UN Fish Stocks Agreement, Port State Measures Agreement, FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, Flag State Performance)
- UNCLOS and related agreements
- UNODC
- Chatham House IUU Update meetings