The 40th meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Technical Committee on Fisheries, was held on the 29 to 31 March 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This was a critical meeting for the SADC Technical Committee on Fisheries as it followed closely after the historical signature in March in Gaborone to the Charter to Establish the SADC Monitoring Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC), allowing the Charter to now enter into force on 8 April 2023. In addition to critical decisions on this matter the Committee also deliberated on the current status and performance of the fisheries sector, including the with fisheries capacity and the status of implementation of SADC Protocol on Fisheries in all member States.

The project named – SADC Atlantic – which is funded by the US Government and implemented by Stop Illegal Fishing was introduced to the participants. This project is supporting the SADC MCSCC to enhance cooperation and build national monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) capacity with a focus on Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

The challenges of decent work in fisheries sector in SADC member States was discussed and recommendations for cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO). Other regional projects on the agenda included PROFISHBLUE on the governance of fisheries and blue economy trade corridors in the SADC region, regional aquaculture value chains and the outcomes of the Aquatrans 2023 training programme, and various small scale fisheries projects in Southern Africa supported by Ecofish were discussed.

A special event was held to discuss the issue of transparency in fisheries and to launch a SADC report on this issue. Per Erik Bergh coordinator of SIF gave brief remarks at this event which was supported by Stop Illegal Fishing, through the Waterloo Foundation and WWF:

“In 2001, when SADC Member States signed the SADC Protocol on Fisheries, they were already promoting regional sharing of information on fishing and related activities through the establishment of a mechanism for the registration of international and national fishing vessels in the region. Back then the States did not use the term “transparency”, but they were certainly promoting it as a means to support sustainable management of all living aquatic resources and aquatic ecosystems within their jurisdictions. Now the sharing of information and coordination amongst States is also one of the objectives of the MCSCC and we can say that the MCSCC is fundamentally built around this need for transparency amongst Member States.”

Mr Bergh also provided those present at the events with some information on a new opportunity named “Ocean Vigilance” to support the promotion of transparency in the region. This will be a process, developed with the SADC States and institutions, to reach a common understanding of the benefits of transparency, to develop shared transparency standards and to build awareness around these to drive a policy change towards achieving these standards.