East African countries are increasingly turning to the blue economy for
solutions to their pressing developmental needs, especially extreme
poverty and hunger. FOTOSEARCH
Plenty is expected from the first Global Conference on the Blue Economy that takes place in Nairobi from November 26-28.
More
than 4,000 delegates from 130 countries will be discussing
opportunities, challenges and strategies for the sustainable creation of
ocean-based economies built on activities such as fisheries, tourism,
aquaculture and a host of other marine-based initiatives.
the breathtaking range of discussions should produce an equally diverse range of proposals.
It
is no accident that the co-hosts Canada, Japan and Kenya settled on
Kenya – and by extension East Africa – as the venue for the discussions.
East
African countries are increasingly turning to the blue economy for
solutions to their pressing developmental needs, especially extreme
poverty and hunger. This is inevitable as pressure on traditional
sources of livelihood, particularly agrarian agriculture, has become
unbearable.
The United Nations has described Africa’s oceans, lakes and rivers as the “new frontier for Africa’s Renaissance.”
East
Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda) has huge potential to
exploit in its more than 2,800-kilometres of coastline, the waters of
the inland sea of Lake Victoria and the numerous lakes and rivers that
already provide the livelihoods of millions of people.
That
said, it must be recognised that the development of the blue economy
will have be driven by global trends and collaborations between
governments, the private sector and development partners.
All
too often, the role of development partners is unappreciated or
downplayed, thus undermining the mobilisation of significant amounts of
resources through development agencies.
In East Africa,
for example, Msingi, a not-for-profit organisation funded by Gatsby
Kenya and DfID, selected aquaculture as its first industry programme and
identified the opportunity to turn a 15,000-tonne fishery into a
220,000-tonne industry with the potential to support more than 75,000
profitable enterprises and sustainably employ hundreds of thousands of
people.
It will also significantly contribute to
solving the protein-deficiency crisis confronting millions of families
in East Africa. The current fish market size is estimated to be 1.3
million tonnes.
But for this potential to be realised,
the current disjointed, exploitative, risky and unsustainable harvesting
of declining wild catch has to be addressed.
Sustainable
aquaculture development requires a co-ordinated sector planning
approach across the region, grounded in a long term, 7-15 year plan with
clear roles for the state, the private sector and development partners.
The
imperative for this is very clear: Industry challenges across the
region are the same, the opportunities to develop aquaculture into an
$84 million a year industry by 2030 are open to all and can only be
fully realised if the planning specifies what role each partner should
play and leverages that to maximise the development impact.
Some
of the more obvious challenges that the sector faces are low yields
from farmed fish (only 15,000 tonnes across the four countries) due to
lack of farm management know-how, appropriate genetics, low-quality
feed, lack of access to finance and an underdeveloped market
infrastructure.
Compare that with the size of the
opportunity implied in the fact that Kenya alone imports more than
50,000 tonnes of fish a year!
Fish in East Africa is 95
per cent hunted while all other protein sources are farmed, an
unhealthy paradox with 53 per cent of the region’s population
malnourished. Aquaculture presents a great opportunity to feed the
people and convert wild fishermen into profitable fish farmers.
Some important recommendations for the East African region that are worthy of consideration at the upcoming conference are:
Adoption of a regional approach to aquaculture transformation, building on the existing regional platforms and multiple studies.
Adoption of a regional approach to aquaculture transformation, building on the existing regional platforms and multiple studies.
Involvement
of key stakeholders in the planning to develop long term-comprehensive
and realistic systemic programmes. The stakeholders could include
policy/technical experts, knowledge partners, the private sector,
development partners and governments.
Governments must
craft innovative and supportive policies to encourage investments in
this sector by foreign and domestic actors.
Policies
and investments programmes must take a long-term approach to
transformation, rather than the popular but unrealistic 3-5 year cycle,
while separating politics from business.
Identification of value-chain priorities per country to ensure they complement each other.
A
shared vision and an innovative regional approach is the one sure way
of resolving this unique paradox: Socio-economic exclusion of
communities near water bodies is most extreme in East Africa and
malnutrition is arguably at its highest ever.
Yet, East
Africa is home to the incredibly popular tilapia and the potential to
expand its production and diversify the region’s portfolio of fish is
vast.
Aggie Asiimwe-Konde is the CEO of Msingi East Africa. @Aggiekonde; aggie.asiimwe@msingi.com
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