Mainstreaming fisheries into national development and poverty reduction strategies: current situation and opportunities

The formulation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) is one of the main conditions for concessional lending by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to developing countries. Nevertheless, while evidence indicates that the fisheries sector can contribute (often markedly at the local level) to improved livelihoods and the achievement of food security in many developing countries, the sector is often neglected in PRSPs. This Circular first identifies of 129 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, economies in transition and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) the significance of the fisheries sector as motor of economic growth or likely poverty refuge. Secondly, it examines the extent to which National Development Plans (NDPs), PRSPs, Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) of the European Union and other donor support programmes have presently incorporated the fisheries sector into such documents. Subsequently, a comparison with data indicating the importance of the sector to the national economy (in terms of generating foreign exchange and/or supporting domestic protein consumption levels) enables us to pinpoint those countries with substantive fisheries sectors, but a correspondingly lower than expected degree of sectoral mainstreaming in NDPs, PRSPs and CSPs, and allows us to identify countries which are currently "punching above their weight" in this respect. Findings are discussed on a regional basis - regional averages suggesting that the sector has been most effectively mainstreamed in Asia (case of PRSPs, NDPs and the World Bank donor support strategies) - closely followed by the African economies and the SIDS. In contrast Latin America, home to two of the top six global fishing nations (Chile and Peru), scores extremely poorly as far as mainstreaming the fisheries sector in PRSPs and NDPs concerns.