This assessment was a 60 day consultancy by IMA International, looking at the training and capacity needs for five core Ministries in Bangladesh working to mainstream nutrition in policy and planning. The assignment was completed under the guidance of the FAO Bangladesh, the Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge (MUCH) team, in close consultation and collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh counterparts, especially the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) and the policy/planning wings of core Ministries, as well as development partners including donors and civil society organizations.

The Government of Bangladesh is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to ensure food and nutrition security for all citizens - including the most vulnerable households, mothers and young children - through a comprehensive approach to sustainable food availability, access and utilization for nutrition. Policy development has increasingly included nutrition as a key objective and there have been considerable efforts to create an enabling environment for the mainstreaming of nutrition in policy. To this purpose, capacity strengthening remains key to successful implementation of food and nutrition policies.

After an initial desk review to understand the development of food and nutrition policies in Bangladesh, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to conduct an institutional needs assessment including direct interviews, GAP Analysis, VENN diagramming, Action Planning, Focus Group Discussions, Participatory Mapping, field visits to Sylhet, and Mymensingh, and a Knowledge Management Assessment.  A huge well done to everyone involved in the improvements in nutrition for the people of Bangladesh!

Our role at IMA has been to work with the University of Strathclyde and FAO’s Legal Office and fisheries specialists to develop a training course to support a step-wise guide for the implementation of international legal and policy instruments related to deep sea fisheries and biodiversity conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ)  are those areas of ocean and sea bed for which no one nation has sole responsibility for management. In all, these make up 40 percent of the surface of our planet, comprising 64 percent of the surface of the oceans and nearly 95 percent of its volume.

Urgent action is needed to improve management of many ABNJ fisheries and strengthen protection of related ecosystems. In this way, we can prevent adverse impacts on marine biodiversity, and promote the socio-economic well-being and food security for millions of people directly dependent on those fisheries.

So it is important and interesting work and directly links to our support to sustainable development goals 2 (Zero Hunger) and 14 (Life below Water).

Participants came from countries representing the South Pacific, Indian and South East Atlantic Oceans, namely; Comoros, Cook Islands, Seychelles, Namibia, Thailand and Mauritius. The participants were Government officials in the roles of: fisheries officer, scientific officer, control inspector, policy and planning, enforcement, legal officer.

At the end of the training all mentioned that they will be able to better support the drafting and implementation of laws that apply to the management of deep sea fisheries and the protection of associated ecosystems.

To find out more about our consultancy, please click here and for more information about open courses check our calendar for 2019.

When a disaster strikes, the emergency response addresses immediate basic needs. Longer term assessments then pave the way for reconstruction. Often, in this longer term process, the real needs of fisherfolk and fishing communities are not met or respected. In fact, they can actually be undermined through the well-meaning, yet unsuitable, provision of vessels, fishing gear and landing sites and infrastructure.

FAO’s ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture Response to Emergency’ (FARE) training package course addresses this very issue. FARE is a tailored effort to specifically bring together fisheries officers and disaster risk reduction specialists to ensure the fisheries’ perspective in embedded and included in longer term response. 

This training package was originally developed by FAO (Food & Agriculture Organisation) and piloted in 2015. We have been working with FAO Fisheries department in Rome since late 2017, supporting the revision and improvement of the FARE training course and associated Training of Trainers. This important and interesting work directly links to our support to sustainable development goals 2 (Zero Hunger) and 14 (Life below Water).

Under the FAO CC4Fish project, the revised  FARE course was recently piloted in Grenada in the Caribbean. Chris and Silvia worked with trainers from the University of West Indies and the Grenada Red Cross to facilitate the 3-day FARE course and the associated FARE Training of Trainers. The project enabled fisheries officers and disaster risk reduction specialists from 6 countries to work together, share experiences and perspectives, and understand how to best implement best practice outlined in two key FAO publications Fisheries and aquaculture emergency response guidance? and Guidelines for the fisheries and aquaculture sector on damage and needs assessments in emergencies .

The aim was to foster a cohort of regional FARE trainers able to deliver the FARE course nationally and in the region, and who can support the assessment and planned response to any emergency affecting the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the Caribbean.

Our innovative, hands-on continuous mini-session practice during the Training of Trainers allowed participants to practice presentation and facilitation skills using the very FARE materials they had been introduced to in the previous 3 day FARE course. Not only did they become familiar with content and methods, but they also worked in their country teams to develop country strategies for taking FARE forward in their countries and in the region. 

We look forward to supporting FAO in 2019 in taking this important FARE training package to other regions affected by disasters.

It was really exciting to pilot the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFm) for Inland Fisheries in Mangochi, Malawi in March. Together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), IMA International was involved in modifying the standard EAFM marine-focused course to address the diversity of inland fisheries contexts. For this workshop we focused on the southern arm of Lake Malawi and neighbouring Lake Malombe, where the livelihoods of fisher communities are affected by inappropriate fishing and farming practices, often with poor governance, and exacerbated by climate change. The workshop was hosted FAO FiRM Project which will be using the EAFM approach to build climate change resilience in the fisheries sector in Malawi.

The workshop was facilitated by Rick Gregory and Silvia Capezzuoli of IMA, together with FAO senior fisheries resource officers. 27 participants from Department of Fisheries, universities, INGOs, representatives from small scale fisher sub-associations and the FiRM project team worked collaboratively for five days, developing draft fisheries management plans.

From a learning and sharing perspective, they all valued the rare opportunity to share experiences, and learn from and with colleagues from diverse institutions.

From a content perspective, participants really appreciated the holistic approach of EAFm, which considers the management of fisheries from the broad lens of i) ecological well-being (both the fisheries resources and the wider habitat/ environment; ii) human wellbeing (health, socio-economic, social) and iii) governance.

The practical, hands-on nature of this course means that those participants who are involved in facilitating the development of plans; those who co-develop plans, and regularly engage with fishers, traditional authorities and other key stakeholders, acquire and practise the skills and tools they need.