MCS Capacity Assessment interviews with Member States are underway following a recommendation at the last West Africa Task Force (WATF) meeting of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC).

Technical Team members of the WATF have conducted virtual interviews with staff of the MCS departments of Ghana and Nigeria for the MCS Capacity Assessment Tool that was introduced during the Twelfth WATF Meeting in Lagos, Nigeria on 10-12 May 2022.

The tool comprises a matrix that enables the establishment of a baseline understanding of the MCS capacity of the Member States for their industrial fisheries sector. The tool will enable the possibility of periodic assessment to track progress along three categories of indicators: human capacity, institutional capacity, and infrastructure capacity.

The responses to interview questions will be used to compose a visual dashboard for year-on-year and or country-to-country comparison of MCS capacities.