Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency recently launched an innovative programme that will improve the quality of life for small-scale fish traders in Africa, many of whom are women. The fish trade is crucial to ensuring food security in Africa, supporting livelihoods and promoting economic development.Funded by the European Union (EU), the Fish Trade programme will support Ministries of Fisheries and Aquaculture by strengthening policies, standards and regulatory frameworks for the promotion of intra-regional fish trade. The goal of the program is to strengthen the capacity of private sector associations, in particular women fish traders, and will enhance the competitiveness of small- and medium-scale enterprises.
In Africa, millions of people depend on fish as a vital source of nutrition. Fish and the fish product trade are increasingly important for Africa’s food security and economic development. Improving food and nutritional security by supporting intra-regional trade is the focus of this four-year, EU-funded programme.
It will achieve this through enhancing the capacities of regional and pan-African organizations to support their member states to integrate intra-regional fish trade into their development and food security policy agendas.
"This project will facilitate regional integration through intra-regional trade in fish and fish products which underscores the vision for an integrated and prosperous Africa,” states Professor Ahmed A. El-Sawalhy, Director of AU-IBAR.
The Fish Trade programme focuses on four trade corridors, in western, southern, eastern and central Africa. The corridors run from Dakar to N’djamena (through Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria and Chad; from Dar es Salaam to Durban (through Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa); from Mombasa to Goma (through Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo); and from Libreville to N’djamena via Yaoundé (through Gabon, Cameroon and Chad). The corridors were selected because of their importance in fish and fish product trade flows.
