FiTI signs partnership agreement with the Danny Faure Foundation

2 February 2023, Victoria/Seychelles. Today, the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) signed a partnership agreement with the Danny Faure Foundation (DFF), as part of a shared vision to promote sustainable marine fisheries in the Indian Ocean through transparency and collective action.

The agreement will see the two organisations collaborate to enhance public knowledge and informed debates among stakeholders in Seychelles – including civil society, media and students – on how the country’s fisheries sector is managed, as well as jointly promoting FiTI as a tool for improving transparency and multi-stakeholder participation in fisheries within the Western Indian Ocean region.

To recall, it was under the leadership of the former President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, that the island nation began implementing the FiTI. During Faure’s tenure, Seychelles became the second country in the world to be granted the status of a FiTI Candidate Country, after Mauritania. Seychelles also hosts the FiTI International Secretariat, headed by its Executive Director, Mr. Sven Biermann.

Will May, FiTI’s Regional Coordinator of the Western Indian Ocean, noted: “The values of sustainable oceans and transparency, accountability and good governance that were championed by former President Faure over the years he was in office now form the bedrock of his foundation’s work. These values also resonate with the FiTI’s approach to open, participatory governance of fisheries resources and so we look forward to collaborating with the DFF to develop joint capacity building and awareness raising activities on these issues, both in Seychelles and the wider region.”

Lorraine Faure, the DFF’s Executive Director added: “It goes without saying that our partnership with FiTI is based on shared values, with the promotion of sustainability built into its core. As such, in FiTI the DFF finds a natural and like-minded partner with whom it can hope to effect the positive change that both organisations want in this endeavour”.

The DFF is a registered non-profit organisation founded by the former President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, with the overall objective of tackling pressing issues to attain a more just, equitable, sustainable and healthy planet for present and future generations. The DFF objectives are structured across five strategic pillars relating to sustainable development, which include ocean governance, the blue economy, leadership and gender equality, transparency, good governance and accountability, and the youth.