FiTI International Board delists Senegal from the Fisheries Transparency Initiative

The government of Senegal has missed the first of two deadlines set by the FiTI’s International Board to demonstrate Senegal’s commitment to implement the FiTI Standard. As a result, the FiTI International Board – the initiative’s global oversight body – has revoked Senegal’s status as a committed country, citing a lack of progress towards finalising mandatory sign-up steps.

Previously, the FiTI International Board sent a letter to the Senegalese government on July 5^th, attempting to find common ground that would allow Senegal to remain in the FiTI. The Board considered the change of government and recognised that the new administration has taken encouraging steps towards fisheries transparency in recent months (such as the publication of a list of vessels authorised to fish in waters under Senegalese jurisdiction).

Based on a decision reached at the Board’s 25^th meeting on the 2^nd of July 2024 [BM-25_2024_D-04], the FiTI determined that the government of Senegal needed to:

• appoint the FiTI Lead Ministry and a FiTI National Lead and communicate this decision in writing to the FiTI Chair by 31 July 2024, and
• submit its complete Candidate Country application in writing (including all supporting documents) to the FiTI Chair by 31 December 2024.

The Board’s letter made clear that missing either one of those two deadlines would result in the immediate delisting of Senegal from the FiTI.

As the government of Senegal has failed to take the steps mentioned above, it is with great regret that the FiTI must announce that Senegal has been delisted from the Fisheries Transparency Initiative with immediate effect.

The act of delisting Senegal also voids the public commitment made by former President Macky Sall on 3 February 2016.

In the July 5^th letter, the Board observed that the current administration had not shown any tangible progress towards finalising the mandatory sign-up steps of the FiTI Standard, despite significant endeavours from the FiTI International Secretariat, its partners, and other national and international stakeholders. The current administration – although maybe willing – could not act on the proposed steps before the deadline. Additionally, the Board did not receive any official communication regarding this important matter since then, which could have impacted today’s decision.

However, the FiTI retains hope that Senegal’s new government will work to establish an enabling environment of transparency and stakeholder participation in Senegal’s fisheries sector by rejoining the FiTI.

As described in today’s letter by Dr Valeria Merino, Chair of the FiTI International Board, to H. E. Dr Fatou Diouf, Minister of Fisheries, Maritime and Port Infrastructure, all that is required to start this process anew is a new public commitment from the government, combined with the appointment of a FiTI Lead Ministry and a FiTI National Lead. This would be a concrete route for the current administration to implement President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s pledge towards transparency and accountability.

By joining the FiTI, the government would also fulfil its commitments under Senegal’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan of the OGP (SN0016), which already includes the implementation of the FiTI as a milestone.

The FiTI ensured Minister Diouf and all interested stakeholders its full commitment to support sincere endeavours to enhance transparency of fisheries management in the country.