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A positive result for African delegations at COFI 2011
The Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations held its 29th session in Rome from 31 January to 4 February 2011. Of the African FAO Member countries, 31 attended the meeting. Ahead of the meeting, an initiative was taken by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) to facilitate work in relation to the coordination of the African delegations and the forming of an African Voice in the meeting. The initiative consisted of preparing for, and providing support during, the meeting, as well as the organisation of a side event. To aid this work, NEPAD Agency collaborated with the FAO Africa Group and in particular with its coordinator, H.E. Wilfred Joseph Ngirwa, Chairperson of the FAO Africa Group and Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania.
For the main meeting days (Monday to Wednesday), African coordination morning meetings were held ‚open to all African FAO Member delegations. The purpose of these meetings was to brief delegations on the main agenda items as well as to provide a forum for discussion chaired jointly by NEPAD and the FAO Africa Group Coordinator. The meetings also provided an opportunity to prepare a joint statement in relation to the IUU fishing agenda item as well a chance to engage with the civil society groups in relation to the small-scale fisheries agenda item.
The purpose of the statement was to push for the early implementation of the 2009 FAO Port State Measures Agreement’s Article 21, which supports capacity-building to achieve implementation of the Agreement in developing countries. H.E. Gabriel Muthisse the Deputy Minister of Fisheries for Mozambique presented the statement in the plenary and was supported through interventions by other African delegations as well as a number of non-African delegations.
On Thursday 3 February 2011, NEPAD and the African Union Commission hosted a side event. The purpose of the side event was to bring together the different players operating in Africa, to think strategically about ‘the bigger picture’ ‚about common objectives and a better way forward through collaboration and coordination. This was to be seen in the wake of the commitments made at the First Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture, held in the Gambia, 2010, and the 2005 Abuja Fish for All Summit. The objective of the meeting was to identify potential coordination mechanisms and agree on a way forward. Several representatives of the different players provided their inputs to the discussion, focusing on important areas for cooperation and coordination from their institutional or project perspective, and provided practical ideas on potential coordination mechanisms. This was followed by an open-floor discussion and eventually an agreement on a proposed coordination mechanism.
From an African perspective, the main outcomes of COFI thus were the joint statement on the 2009 FAO Port State Measures Agreement, and the widespread support it received, as well as the conclusions of the side event. Work will now continue to move forward in relation to both of these positive outcomes.
Photo: Per Erik Bergh