Poverty reduction and aquatic resources

The Millennium Development Goals call for a reduction in the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day to half the 1990 level by 2015. This means reducing from 28.3 percent of all people in low and middle income economies to 14.2 percent. The Goals also call for halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015. If projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 13 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 360 million more people will avert extreme poverty. So while poverty would not be eradicated, that would bring us much closer to the day when we can say that all the world's people have at least the bare minimum to eat and clothe themselves. (Pdf contains 9 pages).

Livelihoods and poverty reduction in coastal communities in the Western Region of Ghana: analysis of livelihoods baseline data of the ICFG Program

This report is the result of the livelihoods baseline survey as part of the USAID-funded Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Governance (ICFG) Program for the Western Region of Ghana (Hen Mpoano). The survey aims to provide a baseline for interventions to be implemented as part of the Hen Mpoano project by: 1) Establishing a baseline of the status of livelihoods of households in target communities (assess income levels and sources, seasonality issues, assets, vulnerability); 2) Establishing a simplified nutritional baseline of households in target communities and fish species consumed; 3) Identifying opportunities for livelihood diversification in the target opportunities.

Agriculture, irrigation and poverty reduction in Cambodia: Policy narratives and ground realities compared

This report is a contribution to an assessment of the current status of agriculture in Cambodia, focusing on the linkages between agriculture and water, mainly in the form of irrigation. It seeks to view current government policies on agriculture and irrigation in the context of experiences on the ground, as communicated through the many field studies that cover varied aspects of performance in the agriculture sector and irrigation schemes. In an effort to identify future research areas, this review examines the status quo, and connects or disconnects with stated policy through a broad lens to capture strengths and challenges across crop production, irrigation management and post-harvest contexts. It places irrigation under scrutiny in terms of its value as a major area of government expenditure in recent years, and asks whether it presents the best potential for future gains in productivity, when compared with the prospects offered by investments in other aspects of agriculture. The fieldwork and review of current literature that form the basis of this report were undertaken at the request of, and partly funded by, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It is also intended to contribute knowledge to the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) led by WorldFish, who co-funded the activities.

Options for poverty reduction through community empowerment towards sustainable fisheries resource production and equity

The current situation is that, by any measure, most fisheries worldwide are fully over exploited. This is also true of the Uganda's fisheries where the effort needed to catch fish has increased, and the average size of fish and of stocks have both declined. A productive fisheries offers many benefits: food for local consumption; raw materials for industry; employment that generates income, which in turn encourages other industrial, commercial and service activities; export markets that can be identified and met to generate hard currency, The national economy also benefits from import substitution and·opportunities for increased taxation. But for fisheries to be productive it is not enough to produce, products must be marketed. Fishers have to learn the lesson that it is no longer enough to expect production to drive the market; success will come from producing what the market demands. It is hoped that co-management can play a big role in harnessing the various energies for sustainable development and management of the fisheries resources.

Sustainable Aquaculture for Poverty Alleviation (SAPA): Strategy and implementation

There is general agreement amongst Government and many donors that aquaculture and improved aquatic resources management can make a significant and direct impact on poverty reduction and hunger eradication in Vietnam. The key policy issue is to better support poor and vulnerable groups who depend on or could make use of aquatic resources through the use of the livelihoods perspective. To address this issue the Ministry of Fisheries of Vietnam (MOFI) has prepared this Sustainable Aquaculture for Poverty Alleviation strategy - the SAPA strategy. (Pdf contains 54 pages).

Aquaculture, fisheries, poverty and food security

Fisheries and aquaculture play important roles in providing food and income in many developing countries, either as a stand-alone activity or in association with crop agriculture and livestock rearing. The aim of this paper is to identify how these contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security can be enhanced while also addressing the need for a sustainability transition in over-exploited and over-capitalized capture fisheries, and for improved environmental performance and distributive justice in a rapidly growing aquaculture sector. The focus of the paper is on the poverty and food security concerns of developing countries, with an emphasis on the least developed. The emphasis is on food security rather than poverty reduction policies and strategies, although the two are of course related. The food security agenda is very much to the fore at present; fish prices rose along with other food prices in 2007-8 and as fish provide important nutritional benefits to the poor, food security has become a primary concern for sector policy.

Aquaculture and food security, poverty alleviation and nutrition in Ghana: Case study prepared for the Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition project

This study provides an overview of the aquaculture sector in Ghana. It assesses the actual and potential contribution of aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security, and identifies enabling conditions for and drivers of the development of Ghana’s aquaculture sector. The study uses data collected from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including key informant interviews with actors within the aquaculture sector and relevant secondary literature.

Poverty in the fisheries, inductors, causes and intervention

The study is prompted by the poverty that persisted among the fishing communities of lake victoria at time of considerable cash inflow into the fisheries development of fish processing industry. There has been need for understanding of the poverty and what strategies would be most appreciate for it's reduction.This study has attempted to respond to the needby identifying the nature and distribution of the poverty within the fisheries lake victoria,Uganda, the factor responsible for itand the options for poverty reduction intervention. The study examined the global and regional perspectives of poverty and wealth distribution, noting that wide disparities existed between the developed and the developing world and also between the developing countries themselves. A historical review of development policies and strategies revealed that while successive strategies were able to contribute to growth, their achievement towards poverty alleviation were less than satisfactory, hence the need for continually developing new strategies. A background to Uganda’s society and economy is provided, examining the demographic, political, environmental and economic conditions of the country. Uganda’s development strategies are reviewed, highlighting the role of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan, Uganda’s main strategy for implementing the policy of poverty reduction and wealth distribution. At the agricultural sector level, the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture has been formulated, followed by the National Fisheries Policy, aimed at providing a policy framework for the management and development of the fisheries. An appropriate definition of poverty was formulated, considered relevant to the situation of Lake Victoria. The dimensions of poverty included inadequate basic necessities, low education and health achievements, a sense of insecurity and exposure to risk. The research methodology was enhanced by the examination of the Lélé Model of the Poverty–Environmental Degradation problem, the World Bank Model of Poverty Causation and the subsequent Lake Victoria Model developed in this study. It has provided a plan for the research, the consideration of criteria and a data collection plan. The data collection instruments included secondary data search, key informant interviews and a sample survey based on a structured questionnaire. The study identified all the four dimensions of poverty in the fisheries, provided poverty profiles with respect to the different activities, groups of people and regions in the fisheries, based on consumption poverty. Among the people identified to be in poverty were the fishing labourers, fishers of Oreochromis niloticus and those operating with non-powered boats. In the post-harvest fisheries, large proportions of processors involved in salting and sun-drying, market stall and bicycle traders were in the poverty category. The ethnic groups most affected included the Samia, Basoga and Bakenye while the Districts of Jinja, Bugiri and Busia had the highest proportions of fishers in the poverty category. With respect to the other dimensions of poverty, the study showed that educational achievement was low within the fishing communities. The health status was poor, due mainly to the prevalence of malaria, diarrhoea, bilharzia and HIV/AIDS. There was a sense of insecurity within certain sections of the fishing community, due to leadership weaknesses within the local as well as the Government institutions. Some community members operated in a state of risk because they were vulnerable to episodes of income, health and education. The causes of poverty in fisheries included weaknesses within the institutional and social environment, limitations in the technology available to the poor, resource degradation and unfavourable economic factors. The recommendations of the study for poverty reduction included strengthening of policies, developing links, improving capacities and increasing resources, to be applied at the levels of Central Government, Local Government and of the community. In view of the achievements of the methodology used on this study, involving reference to the models, it is recommended that future research should build upon this model approach, as it will continue to produce results, especially when attempting to forecast changes relating to interventions.

The Indonesian ornamental fish trade: case studies and options for improving livelihoods while promoting sustainability in Banggai and Banyuwangi

The four main objectives of this case study are: 1. Understanding market chains: an overview of the market chain from Indonesian reefs to international retail, with greater detail for case study sites. 2. Identifying poor people in the market chains: including people involved in the chain of custody and others who may be indirectly involved or impacted. 3. Understanding the influence of the marine ornamentals trade on the livelihoods of poor people: the case study looks specifically for underlying as well as obvious factors contributing to poverty reduction, and identify examples of better practice for poverty reduction in the marine ornamentals trade, including examples of positive livelihood outcomes from participation of poor people. 4. Identifying recommendations to improve poor people’s livelihoods. (PDF contains 286 pages)

Synthesis report with pro-poor trade research findings and policy recommandations

The purpose of the project was to investigate international trade in fisheries products and its relationship to poverty alleviation and livelihoods of poor aquatic resource users in developing countries in Asia, and to identify options to improve the effectiveness of poverty reduction through international seafood trade. The project directly addressed the EC-PREP priority area of trade and development, and indirectly provided valuable insight to two other priority areas: food security and sustainable rural development; and institutional capacity building. [PDF contains 60 pages.]

STREAM Country Strategy Paper: Vietnam

Vietnam is a coastal country in Southeast Asia with a population of over 80 million. Although Vietnam has long been listed among the poorest countries of the world, it has recently made large strides in reducing poverty and improving food security. However, the dramatic gains in poverty reduction in Vietnam still remain quite fragile. There is growing evidence to indicate that dependence on aquatic resources is correlated to poverty, and that aquatic resources constitute an important component of wider livelihoods strategies (largely from the Mekong Delta, Central Coast and the Northern Mountains). (PDF contains 19 pages)

Proceedings of the Learning Workshop on Livelihoods Analysis. Long An, Vietnam 19-20 November 2002

Sustainable Aquaculture for Poverty Alleviation (SAPA) is a strategy under the overall national program for hunger eradication and poverty reduction. This reflects high attention by the Ministry of Fisheries (MOFI) to the poor. Since the strategy was initiated, several actions have been taken. Recently, conferences and meetings were conducted in Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Quang Tri. Consequently we also have workshops on a regional basis, and today we are pleased to conduct a workshop in Long An on livelihoods analysis. Now at the Ministry, there are more than 340 projects in aquaculture to attack poverty. The launch of SAPA has been given a high priority among support agencies. Recently Mr Gill of the World Bank and the Ministry agreed that they would act to strengthen aquaculture for poverty reduction. So today with the support of the Long An People’s Committee, NACA and STREAM we have a workshop to strengthen learning about livelihoods analysis. (PDF has 61 pages.)

Impact pathway analysis for research planning: the case of aquatic resources research in the WorldFish Center

In line with its mandate of poverty reduction and sustainable development, the WorldFish Center is orienting its research towards high impact scientific activity. Identifying such activities is the task of prospective impact assessment, in turn based on impact pathway analysis. The paper describes a framework for analyzing benefits from aquatic resources research, the relevant research categories, pathways to impact by category, and indicators along each pathway that can be estimated in order to quantify probable research impact.

GHERS: Greater Harvest and Economic Returns from Shrimp: Final program performance report

The Greater Harvest and Economic Returns from Shrimp (GHERS) is an initiative of Poverty Reduction by Increasing the Competitiveness of Enterprises (PRICE) project, funded by USAID. The objective of GHERS was to increase the productive capacity of existing farms and enhance quality of shrimp delivered to processors adding over $ 45 million to current sales, $10 million new investment and 14,000 new jobs. This final performance report presents the activities and achievements of the project since 2008.

Training workshop proceedings: adaptive co-management of fisheries (January 21-25, Boyboison Lodge, Fijai, Ghana)

The Adaptive Collaborative Management of Fisheries Training workshop was held in Sekondi, Western Region of Ghana as part of the project “Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Governance Initiative” locally referred to as “H n Mpoano”. The aim of the project is to support the government of Ghana achieve its development objective of poverty reduction, food security, sustainable fisheries management and biodiversity conservation and contributes to its vision: Ghana’s coastal and marine ecosystems are sustainably managed to provide goods and services that generate long-term socioeconomic benefit to communities while sustaining biodiversity.