Seychelles is the first country to achieve ‘Compliant’ status under the FiTI Standard
27 February 2025. As a result of Seychelles’ second validation, the FiTI International Board has granted the Indian Ocean Archipelago an overall status of ‘compliant’ in implementing the FiTI Standard, which is a significant achievement for the country and the FiTI.
Seychelles joined the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) in February 2016, making transparency a key focus of its efforts towards a sustainable ocean economy. Seychelles’ endeavours to establish fisheries transparency as a ‘whole-of-government’ approach were consolidated further by including the FiTI implementation under the country’s Open Government Partnership National Action Plans.
At the heart of the FiTI is the FiTI Standard, the only internationally recognised framework that defines what information on fisheries management national authorities should publish online. Implementing the FiTI includes robust and objective assurance procedures, one of which is the validation process.
Validations safeguard the initiative’s integrity by holding all FiTI implementing countries to the same global standard. They offer a unique opportunity to conduct an objective and standardised verification of a country’s past performance. Their purpose is also to identify lessons learned, enhancement opportunities, and corrective actions to strengthen the operational effectiveness of the FiTI implementation. Finally, they ensure the initiative’s overall impact on the sustainable management of a country’s marine fisheries. Seychelles has undergone two validations and is the first country since FiTI’s creation to attain a ‘compliant’ status, as all the validation requirements have been fulfilled.
On February 27, 2025, the Chair of the FiTI International Board, Dr. Valeria Merino, sent the Validation Statement to the Seychelles’ National Multi-Stakeholder Group and the government, officially communicating on behalf of the Board that Seychelles had achieved an overall ‘Compliant’ status in implementing the FiTI Standard during the validation time-frame (January 2022 – July 2024).
On behalf of the FiTI International Board, the Chair congratulated the Government of Seychelles, the Ministry of Fisheries and the Blue Economy, the FiTI National Lead, the members of Seychelles’ National Multi-Stakeholder Group, and the National Secretariat. Dr. Merino stated, ‘This achievement speaks loudly of the country’s dedication to fisheries transparency, as Seychelles has worked diligently over the years to fulfil the requisites to become compliant. The FiTI International Board is confident that Seychelles, inspired by this significant result, will maintain and reinforce its commitment and efforts to strengthen and institutionalise its fisheries sector transparency and participatory governance further, thus ensuring that the country’s compliant status in the FiTI is retained over time.”
The results of Seychelles’ second validation underline the considerable progress the country has made in its fisheries management transparency since joining the FiTI. During the validation period, the country continuously increased the accessibility, quality, and understandability of the data in the public domain. A noteworthy example is the Seychelles Fisheries Authority’s “Fisheries Information Management System (FIMS)”, which has set the foundation for publishing fisheries information regarding several of the FiTI’s transparency requirements in an easy-to-understand and up-to-date format.
The Chair also communicated that the Board had identified opportunities for further improvement, which were included in the Compliance Statement’s corrective actions section. Seychelles’ official ‘Validation Package’, which consists of the Board’s Compliance Statement, the report of the Independent Validator (Mr Stefaan Depypere), and the Baseline Assessment Report from the FiTI International Secretariat, can be downloaded here: