Mainstreaming fisheries into Latin American development strategies

The paper offers an assessment of the mainstreaming of fisheries in Latin American national development plans and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, World Bank Country Assistance Strategies and EU Country Strategy papers. Although fisheries are not one of the region's most important industries, it does make a major contribution to world fisheries production and includes a number of internationally significant producers. More importantly, those directly involved in the sector are predominantly small-scale artisanal producers, a group traditionally regarded as vulnerable to poverty. Therefore, mainstreaming – the integration of a sector into every stage of policy processes to address cross-sectoral issues such as poverty reduction – may have important welfare implications for those drawing livelihoods from the industry. The extent of mainstreaming, examined by a content analysis of development plans, is compared to the economic and social significance of fishing. The paper concludes that fisheries are under-represented in development planning in a significant number of countries, and also in comparison with African, Asian, and Small Island Developing States.