New FiTI Compliance Channel provides avenue to voice concerns about national FiTI implementations

Governance

New FiTI Compliance Channel provides avenue to voice concerns about national FiTI implementations

By Dorothea Garff

Today, the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) launched its global FiTI Compliance Channel. Designed to support the integrity of national FiTI implementations, the Compliance Channel provides relevant stakeholders with a safe and structured avenue to raise concerns about actual or perceived non-compliance with the FiTI.

All national FiTI implementations are guided by a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach. Therefore, governments must provide an enabling environment where all stakeholders can:

  • participate actively and effectively in the implementation of the FiTI;
  • communicate and cooperate with each other regarding the FiTI;
  • express their opinions about the FiTI without restraint, coercion or reprisal and;
  • engage in public debates related to wider fisheries governance issues.

Despite the requirements and safeguards set forth in the FiTI Standard and other governance documents, such as the FiTI Code of Conduct, relevant stakeholders may still encounter misconduct or non-compliance with the FiTI Standard, the FiTI Principles, or the spirit of the Initiative.

Addressing such concerns comprehensively and in a timely manner is essential to maintaining a trusted collaborative process. Therefore, the FiTI Compliance Channel has been established with clear rules to enhance the ability to voice concerns related to national FiTI implementations:

  • The scope of the FiTI Compliance Channel covers exclusively the following three major concerns, directly related to national FiTI implementations:
    • restrictions on the participation of a stakeholder group or its representatives;
    • wilful provision of misinformation and/or wilful withholding of information and;
    • stakeholder misconduct related to their FiTI-related activities.
  • Any applicable concern arising from national FiTI implementations must first be addressed at the national level. Only those issues that could not be satisfactorily addressed at the national level, or where a stakeholder is not comfortable raising a concern at the national level at all, should be addressed to the FiTI Compliance Channel.

In this regard, the FiTI Compliance Channel has a twofold purpose. The first is to clarify and enhance the ways to voice concerns at the local level. Where this is not possible, or the stakeholder does not feel comfortable, the FiTI Compliance Channel opens the possibility of being heard and responded to at the global level, thereby enhancing trust in the enabling environment for MSGs and, consequently, in national FiTI implementation.

FiTI National Stakeholders with a concern must choose an appropriate contact point to raise it with depending on their role in the national FiTI implementation process:

The FiTI Compliance Channel is a secure, web-based form administered by the FiTI International Secretariat. All incoming information is handled confidentially, and the FiTI International Board will be involved in responding to good-faith and legitimate concerns in accordance with the Channel’s General Rules.

The FiTI Compliance Channel can be accessed via FiTI’s website: https://fiti.global/compliance-channel.

*This scenario applies only to countries where the Chair of the National MSG and the FiTI National Lead are not the same person. Also, while the FiTI National Lead typically acts as the ultimate national escalation contact, in cases where the National Lead holds a lower rank than the Chair of the National MSG, the Chair acts as the final national escalation point.