Group photo of Participants of the Second Decent Work in Fishing Workshop
The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) participated in the second edition of a workshop on Decent Work in Fishing convened by the University of Bern’s Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) and the University of Cape Coast, hosted by the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity on 15 July 2024, at the Platinum Bay Hotel in Abokobi-Sesemi, Ghana.
The workshop brought together fisheries sector stakeholders to discuss the status, improvements and challenges of the fisheries sector since the first workshop in 2022 where the results of the Fisher Safety and Decent Work in Ghana’s Fisheries study on fisher safety and working conditions in Ghana’s waters were presented.
This year’s workshop’s breakout sessions and presentation were focused on understanding multi-layered realities at the intersection of IUU fishing and labour conditions. The fruitful discussions revealed that although significant strides had been made at the policy and regulatory level, some of the fish workers attending the meeting were yet to feel theimpact of this progress or experience a material change in their conditions. This important insight has brought clarity to where future efforts must be directed to achieve the aims of decent working conditions in fishing.
The meeting included a wide range of stakeholder participants from the above-mentioned institutions as well as industrial trawl and tuna fishers, artisanal fishers, fish mommies, and technical fisheries officers from Ghana’s four coastal regions, the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani, the University of Ottawa, Ghana’s Fisheries Commission (FC), Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Labour Department of Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), Ghana International Trawlers Association (GITA), Ghana Tuna Association (GTA), National Union of Seamen, Ports and Allied Workers (NUSPAW), National Union of Teamsters and General Workers (NUTEG), the Senegal-based West Africa Fisheries Organizing Project (WAFOP), Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Hen Mpoano, Friends of the Nation, and the chief fishermen of Tema in the Greater Accra Region, and of Keta in the Volta Region).
