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SADC inland fisheries MCS officers pilot body-worn cameras to strengthen MCS

On 4-5 September 2025, fisheries officers from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe met in Maputo, Mozambique, to receive training on the use of body-worn cameras (BWC), a tool promoted by the Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC) as part of its mandate to coordinate measures relating to monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) in the SADC region.

SIF first introduced body-worn cameras during the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited the possibility to visit countries in the region to conduct national trainings. Through this, coaching of fisheries officers could continue remotely in pilot coastal countries, including Angola, Madagascar, and South Africa, as well as in Ghana, West Africa. The use of the BWC was a success, ensuring continuous support of national officers, while opening a significant number of opportunities for national MCS and regional cooperation through the regional MCS centres.

Body-worn cameras are relatively small devices that have become increasingly common in law enforcement agencies around the world in recent years, mostly by the police. Their use in fisheries MCS can follow different objectives, attached with numerous benefits. The main objective of BWC is to record, providing an objective record of interactions between law enforcement officers and members of the public/agents and fishers. This can help improve transparency and accountability in law enforcement, whilst promoting better behaviour and communication. BWC can be a useful tool in evidence collection. They provide verifiable, time-stamped, geo-referenced video evidence of inspections, catch verification, document checks, and interviews, which can strengthen the evidentiary chain for prosecutions and reduce the risk of disputes.

After being tested in coastal countries, SIF in partnership with the MCSCC and WWF is now introducing BWC in inland fisheries, a sector that often receives less consideration compared to the marine fisheries sector, despite being a complex and challenging sector to manage.

At the end of the training, during which the fisheries officers learnt how to use BWC, including best practices and procedures in terms of handling of information, each participating country was handed over two BWC by the MCSCC, to be used in inland fisheries MCS operations. As a follow-up to this meeting, participants will establish the national conditions needed for the use of the BWC, identify situations and operations in which BWC could be used, and liaise with the MCSCC to report on next steps of implementation.

Through their experience and feedback, inland fisheries countries will play a major role in supporting the elaboration of standardised procedures for the use of BWC throughout the region, supporting the objective of the MCSCC to harmonise regional MCS procedures.