AwF playing role in UN FAO Technical Working Group
Category:UpdatesThree of AwF Board members – Meryl Williams (Australia), Citlali Gomez Lepe (Latin America) and Roy Palmer (USA) – are participating in the Technical Working Group (TWG) for UN FAO on Social Responsibility for Aquaculture Production.
UN FAO Members have given FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division a specific mandate to promote social sustainability in the fisheries and aquaculture value chains, including the recognition and protection of human and labour rights.
To fulfil this mandate, the TWG is assisting FAO developing a guidance to promote and facilitate social responsibility compliance by business actors along the fisheries and aquaculture value chains.
The proposed FAO Guidance entails the entire value chains, which is divided into six sections: (1) Industrial Fishing; (2) Small-Scale Fishing; (3) Aquaculture Production; (4) Processing; (5) Distribution; and (6) Retailing. The FAO Guidance targets the industry; however, it can be also a valuable reference instrument for policymakers, RFMOs and civil society.
During 2022 and 2023, FAO developed the Industrial Fishing section through an inclusive consultation process involving various stakeholders in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
FAO will now initiate the process of developing the Aquaculture Production section. For this, FAO has organised a TWG for consultations with other experts worldwide and UN agencies as a first step to present and discuss the scope of this section.
We are all aware that social responsibility is a complex and intricate issue – collaborative and inclusive work can indeed yield positive outcomes for all of us engaged in any sector-related activity.
https://www.fao.org/3/cc1513t/cc1513t.pdf