Enhance sustainable utilization, development and management of two transboundary river basin fisheries in IGAD region.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

To improve the living conditions of the 7000 families around the Lake Turkana basin and the communities around the Baro-Akobo-Sobat River basin, the ECOFISH-IGAD project seeks to leverage the potential of these two basins. In this context, the project provided the following supports to date:

• 4 studies to assess the potential contribution of the two basins and the needs for their efficient exploitation have been carried out
• considering the results of these studies, the fisheries co-management plan for each basin has been updated and validated
• over 90 fisheries experts and community leaders have been trained for the effective implementation of the fisheries co-management plan
• A coordination platform for each basin and a third one for the IGAD region in general have been set up to ensure a harmonious and complementary implementation of activities. 4 meetings of these platforms’ members have been organized to date.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS:

• Finalize, adopt and establish basin-wide fisheries co-management system for each of the two basins with the needed “collaboration and communication arrangements” among key stakeholders for sustainable fisheries exploitation, equitable access to fisheries resources, and efficient fisheries utilization.​​

• Capacity building and integrated data base establishment that will address climate smart, gender responsive, socioeconomically equitable, and ecologically sustainable fisheries development and management for each of the two basins.

ACTIVITIES:

• Support the establishment and implementation of fisheries co-management system
• Promote and support bilateral cooperation for sustainable management of shared fisheries resources in each of the two basins
• Socio economic assessment and support to gender inclusivity and integration of local knowledge in fisheries management
• Capacity building of fisheries stakeholders
• Monitoring and evaluation of planned activities.
• Support to cross border fisheries management for the respective basins through establishment of platforms
• Facilitate the interoperability of systems and exchange of fisheries data across the two basins
• Improve fisheries assessment, data collection and data management in support of more evidence based Basin-wide fisheries policies and management measures
• Support to climate change smart fisheries
• Support capacity building for bilaterally harmonised Enforcement, Compliance and Prosecution procedures in the fisheries sector.