Sustainable fisheries management is a complex process that requires balancing economic, environmental, and social needs. No stakeholder can do it alone. Instead, a collaborative approach is needed.
That is why each country that implements the FiTI Standard requires an enabling environment for stakeholder participation, consisting of, inter alia, a National Multi-Stakeholder Group that involves the full, active and effective engagement of government, business and civil society, as well as high-level political leadership and operational support.
While a public commitment to engage with the FiTI demonstrates a sincere intention of the country’s government to increase transparency in fisheries management, such an initial commitment should not be misinterpreted as official acceptance into the initiative.
Only when such a commitment is followed by concrete implementation activities to establish an enabling environment for fisheries transparency and stakeholder collaboration, and the subsequent approval of the country’s aplication by the FiTI International Board will the country be formally recognised as an FiTI Implementing country.
4 implementation activities to establish an enabling environment for fisheries transparency and stakeholder collaboration:
Purpose: Coordinates and facilitates the implementation of the FiTI in the country.
The government must designate a national authority as the principal contact to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of the FiTI in the country. This authority must ensure that the government is actively and effectively engaged in the national FiTI implementation process.
Good to know: This Coordinating Authority is often directly related to fisheries, blue economy or environment, but could also be another governmental body (e.g. Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) or directly located in the President’s or Prime Minister’s office.
Purpose: Initiates and oversees the national FiTI implementation process.
The Coordinating Authority must appoint a senior government official to initiate and oversee the FiTI implementation process and act as the government’s permanent focal point. This official must have the confidence of all stakeholders, the authority and freedom to coordinate actions on the FiTI implementation across relevant ministries and agencies, and be able to mobilise resources for the FiTI implementation.
Good to know: This senior government official from the Coordinating Authority (e.g. State Secretary, Director) must be active in office, and have the confidence of all stakeholders. The National Focal Point has several key responsibilities in the national FiTI implementation process, such as coordinate the establishment of the FiTI National Multi-Stakeholder Group; establishe a properly resourced National Secretariat; mobilise political support and financial resources for the FiTI implementation in the country; monitor the overall FiTI implementation process; serve as the national escalation point regarding the FiTI implementation; and acts as the country’s focal point to the FiTI International Secretariat.
Purpose: Provides administrative and operational support to the National Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) as well as its Chair.
The National Focal Point must ensure the ongoing provision of a properly authorised and resourced National Secretariat to provide administrative and operational support to the National MSG, to which the National Secretariat is accountable.
Good to know: The National Secretariat must have sufficient time to execute its responsibilities (e.g. prepare, schedule and follow up on National MSG meetings, draft the National MSG work plans and other support documents, or conduct outreach and media activities. In most FiTI countries, this is either a part-time or a full-time position from existing staff of the Coordinating Authority.
Also, in case similar secretariats or organisations that support other multi-stakeholder initiatives are already established in the country, the National Focal Point is encouraged to explore operational synergies.
Purpose: Acts as the main national decision-making body for enhancing transparency in your country’s fisheries sector.
The National Focal Point must coordinate the designation of a National Multi-Stakeholder Group – comprising government representatives (which may also include parliamentarians), business representatives (including industrial fisheries and small-scale fisheries associations), and civil society (including non-profit organisations, academia, media).
Good to know: The invitation to participate in the National MSG must be open and made public. Also, each stakeholder group (i.e. government, business, civil society) has the right to identify and nominate its own representatives through a process that is independent and free from any suggestion of coercion. It is encouraged that the nomination process considers the desirability of pluralistic and diverse representation.
In case a similar and applicable multi-stakeholder platform is already established in the country, the National Focal Point is encouraged to designate it as the National MSG to avoid duplication.
When a country has completed the above-mentioned four steps activities, and wishes to be recognised as a FiTI Implementing Country, the country’s National Focal Point – with the approval of the National MSG – submits a FiTI Implementation Application to the FiTI International Board. The application document must be submitted at least one week before an FiTI International Board meeting. If this deadline is not met, the decision on the application will be postponed to the following Board meeting.
The application must describe the rationales and objectives of the national FiTI process, the activities undertaken to date and provide evidence demonstrating that each of mandatory activities have been completed.
The FiTI International Secretariat provides a standardised template for the Implementation Application, which must be used by the National Focal Point. The application can be downloaded from the FiTI’s Document Library (category: MSG Operational Support).
In assessing a country’s Implementation Application, the FiTI International Board may contact stakeholders at the national level to ascertain their views on the sign-up process, and may seek comments from supporting governments, international civil society organisations, supporting companies, supporting multilateral organisations and investors.
The FiTI International Board will review the application and assess whether the initial steps to provide an enabling environment for stakeholder participation have been completed. The FiTI International Board will make the final decision about the applicant country’s status
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the enabling environment for national FiTI implementations:
While the National Focal Point, a senior government official from the Coordinating Authority, is responsible for initiating and then overseeing the FiTI implementation process, the country’s National Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) is the main national decision-making body for enhancing transparency in the country’s fisheries sector. A detailed overview of the different responsibilities is shown below:
| Responsibilities | Frequency | National Focal Point | National MSG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobilising political and financial support for the FiTI implementation | Ongoing | X | |
| Coordinating the establishment of a National MSG | Once | X | |
| Agreeing on clear, formally documented, publicly accessible Terms of Reference (ToR) for the National MSG | Once | X | |
| Establishing a FiTI National Secretariat | Once | X | |
| Coordinating action across relevant ministries and agencies | Ongoing | X | |
| Acting as the national decision-making body in charge of applying the global FiTI Standard to the national context | Ongoing | X | |
| Overseeing the implementation of the FiTI | Ongoing | X | |
| Developing the country’s FiTI workplan | Regularly (e.g. annual) | X | |
| Determining recommendations for transparency improvements over time | Annual | X | |
| Ensuring that FiTI contributes to public debates | Ongoing | X | |
| Serve as the national escalation point regarding the FiTI implementation | On request | X | |
| Representing the country vis-à-vis the FiTI International Board | On request | X |
In short, no! Countries seeking to implement the FiTI must not combine the FiTI National Multi-Stakeholder Group with other multi-stakeholder groups from different industries, while operational synergies in the support of various multi-stakeholder groups (e.g. combined National Secretariat) should be pursued.
The reasons for this are as follows: The last two decades have seen the emergence of several multi-stakeholder initiatives across various industry sectors. These include, inter alia, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) or the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST). While each of these industry-specific initiatives has its own unique characteristics, they all share a multi-stakeholder approach as their defining paradigm, similar to the FiTI. Countries that are implementing the FiTI in addition to other, already existing multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as EITI and CoST, might therefore consider exploring synergies with these initiatives, or even consider utilising existing groups to carry out the responsibilities of the FiTI National MSG.
However, there are strong arguments against combining various cross-sectoral National Multi-Stakeholder Groups or even establishing a single National Multi-Stakeholder Group that would govern all the country’s multi-stakeholder activities.
- Reduced quality, credibility and legitimacy: Each National MSG has to make fundamental decisions for tailoring, reporting on and promoting the initiative within its own sector and to the general public. For a sector as complex as fisheries, each stakeholder group must therefore provide its own expertise and knowledge. Combining different National MSG would mean that experts from different fields, e.g. oil, gas and minerals as well as fisheries, would need to collaborate on technical aspects unrelated to their area of expertise. This would not only negatively impact the quality of decisions and the credibility of the provided information but would also decrease the legitimacy of the entire group.
- Operational inefficiencies: The size of a National MSG is a key defining factor for its efficient operation. For example, too few members may not demonstrate adequate representation, while too many members may impact effective decision-making. Combining stakeholders from different initiatives would most likely not only reduce the number of representatives for each initiative, but also increase the total number for the overall group. There is a high risk that an enlarged group would result in inefficient processes. For example, combined meetings may run longer and still may not provide sufficient time to discuss detailed industry-specific aspects. This may gradually frustrate participating members and make the general participation in such multi-stakeholder groups less appealing for stakeholders.
- Decreased collaboration and trust-building: The objective of the various transparency or governance multi-stakeholder initiatives is not only to increase transparency, but also to enhance trust among the different stakeholders over time. Combining stakeholders from different industries into one group would most likely not only reduce the total number of industries’ representatives, but also reduce opportunities for dialogue and collaboration amongst representatives from different stakeholder groups.
It is important to recognize that the responsibilities of a National MSG are manifold, ranging from consolidating and disseminating relevant information, contributing to the public debate to determining work areas where the country shows weak performance against the initiative’s standards. For this, each of the National MSGs requires operational support in form of a National Secretariat. Therefore, a national FiTI implementation can benefit from operational and administrative synergies with support structures that are already established for similar multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as EITI. Such a combined National Secretariat, serving multiple multi-stakeholder initiatives in the country, may include the sharing of administrative personnel, office space and infrastructure.