The
West African Association for Development of Artisanal Fisheries (WADAF) has
organised a one day forum for stakeholders within the Artisanal Fisheries
Professional Organisation (AFPO) to develop a collective action plan which
would be used to implement project the for the Banjul landing site and the
Greater Banjul Area.
The
West African Association for the Development of Artisanal Fisheries (WADAF) has
been implementing projects for artisanal fisheries to strengthen governance and
build the capacity of various local fishermen within the West African region.
The
sub regional Fisheries Commission includes The Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea,
Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
WADAF
have also built various project at Bakau and Banjul landing site by
constructing toilets and the fish market of Bakau.
The
forum that brought participants from
Banjul Fish, Bakoteh Fish and Serekunda Fish Markets, discussed the
possible ways of coming up with a collective action plan.
The
Executive Director of WADAF, Musa Mbenga, speaking on the occasion held at the
Department of Fisheries in Banjul, said that the collective action plan would
be the guiding tool to implement their projects in The Gambia.
“WADAF
is a regional NGO that was formed in Ivory Coast in 2010 and have registered
success stories and projects have never failed and are still sustainable,” he
said.
Mr
Mbenga added that their project aims to strengthen the professional and
political skills of artisanal fishermen to improve their capacities through
capacity building programmes in the seven member countries.
“We
conduct various training programmes for fish processors and fish wholesalers,”
he stressed, adding that the ideas for a collective action plan was identified
during the restitution sessions on modules 1, 2 and 3 by the leaders trained in
the framework of the project.
He
added that the objective of these workshops was to better shape the collective
action projects whose ideas have been identified during the restitution
sessions with a view to clarifying, adapting and making them more operational.
Adama
Sanneh from the Department of Fisheries said credit unions should be
established which will be value addition to the fully established fishing
communities.
“We
want sustainability at all the fish landing sites and the infrastructures to be
built will involve the fish markets and Ice plants that must be sustained for
future generations,” he said.
Haddy
Gaye from Serrekunda Fish Market said that they lacked a fish market at
Serrekunda and vendors displayed their fish on the ground for sale which was
far from healthy.
She urged the projects to consider the
construction of a toilet at the market for them as they lack proper hygiene at
the market.
