Abidjan, 08 March 2023, Treichville Labour Exchange
The celebration of the 2023 International Women’s Rights Day comes after the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022). It is an opportunity for women of CAOPA to celebrate, but also to commit them to the future of this sector which supports more than 100 million people in Africa.
We, representing professional women of African small-scale fisheries, wish first of all to thank authorities of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, our brothers and sisters of FENASCOOP-CI, for having allowed us to meet in order to discuss our concerns.
For the second time, we are celebrating this day in Abidjan, after the 2013 edition, with the government and all actors gathered. We salute all the efforts made by everyone for the success of this event.
We, women of CAOPA, are innovators in sustainable fisheries, contributing to food security, poverty eradication and job creation.
To add value to our actions, we need access to fisheries resources, access to services and infrastructure, and to be recognized as stakeholders in decision-making processes.
Every day, at the cost of great difficulties, the work of our small-scale fishermen and fish farmers, our women processors, fishmongers and fishmongers, makes it possible to feed hundreds of millions of people on our continent. And this even during the Covid 19 crisis.
During the year 2022, CAOPA supported the requests of African small-scale fisheries set out in the “Artisanal Fisheries Call to Action” which we discussed at length during the two-day workshop preceding this ceremony.
This call was launched by CAOPA in collaboration with small-scale fisheries organizations from five other continents in which we ask our governments to put in place, in a participatory, transparent and gender-sensitive manner, national action plans based on five priorities for action.
To give a dignified and sustainable future to African small-scale fisheries, we call on our States – who are our primary partners – to focus on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.b, and to guarantee access to resources and markets for small-scale fisheries.
We call on our states to:
First: Ensure decent living and working conditions for women in small-scale fisheries.
Second: Ensure women’s access to fish, through legislation and fisheries policies that protect the resource.
Third: Encourage and support women and young people, by providing better working conditions and appropriate infrastructure.
We also call on our governments to:
Fourth: Prioritize human consumption of fish: To do this, promote responsible aquaculture and produce alternative feeds to fishmeal, and encourage appropriate investments in preservation, processing and marketing to feed people; and
Fifth: Promote good governance – anchored in stakeholder participation, transparency of decision-making processes and accountability to citizens – as an essential foundation, not only in fisheries and aquaculture policies, but also in policies related to the promotion of the blue economy.
We are committed to dialogue with our States to contribute to the sound management of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
We expect the same from our states.
Long live African small-scale fishing, for the availability of the resource for the benefit of populations!
Long live Africa!
Long live women!