Socio-Economic Significance of Fisheries in African Countries

Background

It is acknowledged that Africa’s participation in global fish trade is fairly limited at approximately 4.9 % and slid to being a net importer from 2011 (FAO, 2014). While UNCTAD (2013) puts official intra-African trade at an average of 11 % from 2007 to 2011, intra-African trade in fish was reported to be 24 % between 2010 and 2012 (FAO, 2014). WTO (2014) cites cotton, coffee and fish as being agricultural commodities with export potential for Africa. In addition, fisheries have the great potential to generate more food and nutrition security benefits and help to achieve other societal objectives such as reducing poverty and protecting the environment or promoting sustainable fisheries management. Since more trade tends to be associated with faster economic growths, expanding fish trade opportunities for small-scale fishers and fish farmer may help raise incomes and achieve sustainability of the African fisheries resources, which in return would further sustain the natural wealth of the continent.

Underlining the importance of Agriculture and Food Security, the theme of the Twenty Third Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, from 26-27 June 2014, was phrased: “Transforming Africa’s Agriculture for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods through Harnessing Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, also marking the tenth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)” (AUC, 2014). It was during this 23rd Session that the Heads of State and Government made the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods (Assembly/AU/ /Decl.1(XXIII). Among the commitments made in the declaration, African Member States committed to end hunger in Africa by 2025 through accelerating agricultural growth by at least doubling productivity levels by 2015 by among other things facilitating sustainable and reliable production and access to quality and affordable inputs (for crops, livestock, fisheries, amongst others) through, among other things, provision of “smart‟ protection to smallholder agriculture.
The Summit also endorsed the landmark Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (AUC-NEPAD, 2014) which was formulated with the main purpose of facilitating coherent policy development for the sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture resources in the member states of the African union. Abbreviated as PFRS, the document provides for the guidelines on how countries should better capture the wealth of fisheries, reduce poverty, increase food and nutritional security and ensure equitable distribution of the benefits particularly for the poorest, marginalized and most vulnerable in society, such as women. It provides a framework for guiding the development and benchmarking of sustainability standards and certification for fisheries in Africa in order for the standards to convey a true message of sustainability which is reflected in the improved productivity of fisheries and aquaculture as well as enhanced contribution of fish to sustainable food and nutritional security, economic wellbeing of fishing communities and aquaculture stakeholders, environmental and biodiversity conservation, efficient, effective and transparent governance and improved national incomes.

Fisheries Contribution in African Economies and Livelihoods
It is acknowledged that Africa’s participation in global fish trade is fairly limited at approximately 4.9 % and slid to being a net importer from 2011 (FAO, 2014). While UNCTAD (2013) puts official intra-African trade at an average of 11 % from 2007 to 2011, intra-African trade in fish was reported to be 24 % between 2010 and 2012 (FAO, 2014). WTO (2014) cites cotton, coffee and fish as being agricultural commodities with export potential for Africa. In addition, fisheries have the great potential to generate more food and nutrition security benefits and help to achieve other societal objectives such as reducing poverty and protecting the environment or promoting sustainable fisheries management. Since more trade tends to be associated with faster economic growths, expanding fish trade opportunities for small-scale fishers and fish farmer may help raise incomes and achieve sustainability of the African fisheries resources, which in return would further sustain the natural wealth of the continent.
Many African countries are endowed with fish resources from oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, floodplains and fish farms, which generate a range of benefits including food and nutrition security, livelihood, exports and biodiversity. Africa produced a total of 9.9 million tonnes of fish in 2010, of which 2.7 million (1/3) came from inland fisheries, 1.49 million tonnes from aquaculture and the rest from marine capture fisheries (FAO, 2014). The value provided by the fisheries sector as a whole in 2011 was estimated at more than US$24 billion, representing 1.26% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all African countries, with aquaculture producing an estimated value of almost US$3 billion per year (de Graaf & Garibaldi, 2014).
Furthermore, fisheries sector as a whole employs 12.3 million people as full-time fishers or full-time and part-time processors, accounting for 2.1% of Africa’s population of between 15 and 64 years old. Of these employed, almost half were fishers; 42.4% were processors and 7.5% were engaged in aquaculture. Women are heavily involved in the fish sector, accounting for about 27.3% of the total workforce in fisheries and aquaculture, and they are directly involved in fishing (3.6 %), processing (58%), and aquaculture (4%). With regard to food and nutrition security, fish is very important source of animal protein, accounting for an average of around 5% of total protein FAO (2014). Per capita consumption of fish in Africa was reported to be 9.7 kg per year; lower than the world average (18.9 kg/year); with some countries (Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Malawi and South Africa) experiencing stagnant or declining per capita FAO (2014).

The Launch of the Fish Trade Program

While endorsing the AU Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa in the 23rd Session of AU Heads of State and Government (HSG) Summit, the African leaders also committed themselves to “accelerate trade by developing fish value chains, promoting responsible and equitable fish trade and marketing in order to significantly harness the benefits of Africa’s fisheries and aquaculture endowments”. In this respect, the HSG adopted a number of strategies, including to:

• simplify and formalize the current trade practices;
• fast-track the establishment of Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and transition to a continental Common External Tariff (CET) scheme;
• increase and facilitate investment in markets and trade infrastructure;
• promote and strengthen platforms for multi-actors interactions; and
• strengthen and streamline the coordination mechanism that will facilitate the promotion of African common position on agriculture-related international trade negotiations and partnership agreements.

In response to the high level political commitment by African Union to fish trade development, the Fish Trade Program (Improving Food Security and Reducing Poverty through intra-regional Fish Trade in sub-Saharan Africa) was launched and is being implemented jointly by WorldFish, NEPAD Agency and AU-IBAR.
The Fish Trade Program aims to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing the capacities of regional and pan-African organizations to support their member states to better integrate intra-regional fish trade into their development and food security policy agendas. The Program will work in four corridors in Africa (Western, Southern, Eastern and Central); and will deliver on the following results:
(i) Generate information on the structure, products and value of intra-regional fish trade in food security in Sub Saharan Africa and make it available to stakeholders.
(ii) Come up with a set of recommendations on policies, certification procedures, standards and regulations, and get them well embedded in national and regional fisheries, agricultural, trade and food security policy frameworks in sub-Saharan Africa.
(iii) Enhance the capacities for trade amongst private sector associations, in particular of women fish processors and traders and aquaculture producers, to make better use of expanding trade opportunities through competitive small and medium scale enterprises; and
(iv) Facilitate adoption and implementation of appropriate policies, certification procedures, standards and regulations by key stakeholders participating in intra-regional trade in the four trade corridors.
1.4 The Context of ARSO’s Involvement
Within the African continent, there has been continued focus on the role of agriculture and food production in resolving multiple dimensions of the continent’s challenges such as food insecurity, malnutrition, ravaging poverty, gender inequalities, rural underdevelopment, lack of industrialization, climate change uncertainties, increasing trade deficits and import bills, unemployment and a host of other challenges preoccupying leaders across the continent.
From 2012 ARSO has been implementing its Strategic Plan which is aligned to the implementation of the African Union (AU) priorities and programmes as expressed in various AU instruments such as the following:

(i) Assembly/AU/Decl.7 (II): the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security (AUC, 2003) endorsing the establishment of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), its flagship projects and evolving Action Plans for agricultural development, at the national, regional and continental levels; and consequently agreeing to adopt sound policies for agricultural and rural development, and committing Member States to allocating at least 10% of national budgetary resources for their implementation within five years;

(ii) Ex/Assembly/AU/Decl. 1 (II): the Sirte Declaration on Agriculture and Water (AUC, 2004), geared toward addressing the challenges in implementing integrated and sustainable development on agriculture and water in Africa; and in respect to fisheries and aquaculture, committing Member States to promote the development of fishery resources, develop fishing methods and equipment, improve facilities for their preservation, storage, distribution and processing, and encourage regional cooperation in the field of fishing, including the protection of fishery resources in our exclusive economic zones; and to promote intra-African trade in agricultural and fishery products in order to correct discrepancies in food balances at both national and regional levels, and explore the use of new methods to settle payments for trade;

(iii) the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution: Africa Fertilizer Summit: African Union Special Summit of the Heads of State and Government (AUC, 2006a). The declaration notes the importance of developing quality control standards for both organic and inorganic fertilizers. The declaration advocates for the increase in the use of fertilizers from 8 kilograms per hectare in 2006 to at least 50 kilograms per hectare by 2015;

(iv) FS/Decl (I): Declaration of the Abuja Food Security Summit (AUC, 2006b); that Member States shall increase Intra-African trade by promoting and protecting rice, maize, legumes, cotton, oil palm, beef, dairy, poultry and fisheries products as strategic commodities at the continental level, and cassava, sorghum and millet at sub-regional level without prejudice to focused attention being given also to products of particular national importance; and AUC and NEPAD shall facilitate the attainment of continental self-reliance by 2015 for the following: rice, maize, sorghum/millet and cassava, oil palm, beef, poultry, aquaculture (tilapia/cat fish); and to process 50% of cotton produced in Africa by 2015 while also making efforts to rapidly increase the share of local processing for other commodities;

(v) FS/Res (I): Resolution of the Abuja Food Security Summit (AUC, 2006c); urging Member States to ratify and implement harmonized standards and grades including sanitary and phytosanitary standards within and across RECs by 2010

(vi) Assembly/AU/Decl.2 (XI): Sharm El-Sheik Declaration on Responding to the Challenges of High Food Prices and Agriculture Development by among other things committing to reduce by half the number of undernourished people in Africa by 2015, eradicate hunger and malnutrition in Africa and take all necessary measures to increase agricultural production and ensure food security in Africa, in particular through the implementation of AU-NEPAD CAADP and the 2003 AU Maputo Declaration (AUC, 2008a).

(vii) AU/MIN/CAMI/3(XVIII): Strategy for the Implementation of the Plan of Action for the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA): Eighteenth Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Industry (CAMI) (AUC, 2008b). Under AIDA, the CAMI Bureau and UNIDO have identified agro-food processing as one of the priority sectors with good prospects for successful growth alongside other sectors such as: chemicals and pharmaceuticals, minerals, textiles/garments, leather/leather products, forestry, fisheries, and equipment/machinery and related services.

(viii) Assembly/AU/Decl.2(XIII) Rev.1: Sirte Declaration on Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security where the Member States undertook to support relevant policy and institutional reforms that will stimulate and facilitate accelerated expansion of agriculture related market opportunities by modernizing domestic and regional trading systems, removing obstacles to trans-border trades, and increasing access by smallholder farmers to inputs and the necessary commercial infrastructure and technical skills to fully integrate them into the growing value chains (AUC, 2009).

(ix) Assembly/AU/Decl (2010): Abuja Declaration on Development of Agribusiness and Agro-industries in Africa: High-level Conference on Agribusiness and Agro-industries (A3DI) which, among other things, undertakes to promote the building and harmonization of standards as a quality tool in the production, processing, storage and marketing of agro-products and urges Member States to promote and support the African Regional Standards Organization (ARSO) in the harmonization of industrial standards, grades and metrology for the promotion of regional and international trade (AUC, 2010).

(x) Joint Declaration of Ministers of Agriculture and Ministers of Trade on endorsing the Boosting of Intra-Africa Trade as a Key to Agricultural Transformation and ensuring Food and Nutrition Security (AUC, 2012).
The World Bank (WB, 2012) notes that Africa’s farmers have the capacity to produce enough food to feed the growing population especially in the expanding urban centres, there are disincentives arising from the fact that African farmers face more barriers in accessing the inputs they need and in getting their products across borders to consumers in African cities, than suppliers from the rest of the world. These barriers along the whole value-chain reduce returns to farmers while increasing prices paid by consumers. Removing these barriers to regional trade is essential if Africa is to attain its potential in food trade. Harmonizing standards and codes of practice across African countries can provide a clear and predictable policy framework for regional trade so that institutions that facilitate exchange and mitigate the inherent risks associated with food production can flourish and support efficient and safer market outcomes and a more effective approach to food security in Africa. It is further emphasized that African commodities can be the basis for industrialization if non-tariff barriers, sanitary and phyto-sanitary barriers and technical barriers to trade, especially for agricultural commodities are eliminated by the concerted efforts of the continent’s institutions and Member States (UNECA & AUC, 2013).