Resource information
This report is the culmination of a
cross-African countries analytical and empirical study
commissioned by the World Bank, which set out to improve the
understanding of the characteristics and environmental,
economic, and social performances of small-scale fisheries
in Africa. It applies a common evaluation tool, called
Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs), which evaluates the
ecological, social, and economic performances of a
particular fishery. This paper is a compilation of a series
of case studies to cast some light on the status of SSFs in
Africa. The fisheries case studies range from inland to
marine, single to multispecies, East to West African, and
from artisanal to semi-industrial fisheries. A template was
developed to provide structure and guidance for these case
studies. Each case study involved the following elements:
(a) characterization of SSFs (at both the national and
case-study levels); (b) legal and institutional framework
for case-study countries and communities; and (c) social,
economic, and environmental performance of case-study
fisheries. This synthesis report focuses on element (c) by
using the standard Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) to
do the comparison analysis. This report uses the
quantitative results from the FPIs to explore commonalities
and differences among and between the nine African fisheries
in six countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal,
and Sierra Leone) and to infer their relative strengths and
weaknesses. Overall, there are large performance gaps in the
recent African SSFs in terms of the output performance.
These fisheries have unhealthy fish stock, high-risk
volatility, weak market performance, and postharvest performance.
