The Small-Scale Fishers’ Forum or “SSF Forum” is a place for small-scale fishers and fish workers from the Mediterranean and Black Sea region to come together, share knowledge and exchange best practices to build capacity on common issues and jointly identify opportunities and alternative scenarios for their resources management.
This initiative responds to the recommendations within the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (RPOA-SSF) to offer support to small-scale fishers and fish workers to further develop their capacities and skills with regard to sustainable small-scale fisheries and livelihoods. In particular, Paragraph 39 e of the RPOA-SSF calls upon countries to:
“Facilitate education and training opportunities for men and women of the fisheries sector, such as summer universities, aimed at developing fisheries-specific skills, policy knowledge (fisheries, environment) and, in particular, knowledge and innovative solutions and technology developments”.
This initiative also supports the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, which strongly recommend facilitating capacity development of small-scale fishing communities and enabling their participation in decision-making and development processes.
The workshops of the 2021 “SSF Forum” are aligned with the main themes of the RPOA-SSF, each consisting of a series of 1.5-2 hour sessions. The workshops are designed to offer small-scale fishers and fish workers from around the region the opportunity to share good practices and learn from one another. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, all 2021 SSF Forum workshops are foreseen to be held virtually. Once travel will be possible again, the SSF Forum will aim to also promote peer-to-peer exchanges through in-person field visits.
Small-scale fishers, fish workers, SSF organization representatives and other relevant stakeholders of Mediterranean and Black Sea countries are encouraged to apply to the workshops. Fishers and fish workers who actively work in Mediterranean and Black Sea small-scale fisheries will be given priorities and other stakeholders accommodated subject to space.
SSF Forum participants will receive a certificate of completion. Those fishers, fish workers and SSF organization representatives that have completed SSF Forum workshops will be given priority for funding to support their travel to attend future in-person SSF Forum events.
All 2021 SSF Forum workshops will be held online. Specific instructions for accessing the online workshops, including login details, will be shared with registered participants in the days prior to the start of the course.
Interpretation will be provided for all workshops in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Additional languages may be added on an ad hoc basis depending on the interest and language needs of registered participants.
FAO, 2021