The intention to join the FiTI must come from a country’s head of state or government, or an appropriately delegated government representative (e.g. Minister responsible for fisheries).
In order to be formally recognised as an FiTI implementing country, a country must implement six sign-up steps and submit a Candidate application to the FiTI International Board. If the application is approved, the country is considered a FiTI Candidate country.
After its first reports and undergoing successfully its first validation, a country is declared a FiTI Compliant country. This status is maintained if the country continues to adhere to the FiTI Standard throughout subsequent validations.
The status as a FiTI Compliant country can be lost if the country fails to abide by the FiTI Standard, including a failure to publish existing information for the transparency requirements or where there is evidence that multi-stakeholder participation is not being achieved effectively.