Introduction

Fisheries agreements that have been signed in the sub region pertain to a great variety of living marine resources which represent, for the most part, a market value of several billion euros per year. Most of these agreements are directly negotiated between sub regional Governments and government representatives of distant water fishing nations such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the European Union . Beyond these inter-Governmental agreements, coastal States are also called upon to negotiate directly with independent professional federations or individual operators that wish to access West African fisheries resources.

In certain countries of the sub region, living marine resources constitute the most important national resources in terms of food security, to fuel economic growth and reduce poverty. A successful negotiation,is therefore essential to guarantee the sustainability of the harvesting operations implemented through these agreements, in order to secure sustainable profits.

Issue-problem

Within a complex and turbulent international context, it is a fact that most negotiators that are called upon by their Government to negotiate fisheries agreements either in Peking, Tokyo or Brussels, often lack the means and technical capacity to negotiate good fisheries agreements. A number of key elements do contribute to this fundamental weakness, namely:

1. Most national administration executives have not been trained formally in the theory and practice of trade negotiation;
2. The choice of national negotiation delegations is either random or based upon considerations that have no direct relationship with the nature of the mission;
3. The delegations receive either little or no briefing, and the specific tasks of each delegation member are hardly defined at all (poor preparation);
4. Few agreements are actually followed up in detail or even systematically evaluated, which renders impossible the formulation of a national strategy going beyond the optimization of expected financial spin-offs, as part, hopefully, of a coherent and holistic sectoral policy.

Whenever a weak delegation is faced with well trained, well organized, and well informed professional negotiators, following predetermined strategies, it becomes extremely difficult, for regional fisheries officers to maximize the financial or other types of outcomes for their country.

Objective

This activity sets out to launch a tailored, sub regional training course for officials involved in fisheries agreements negotiations, with a view to enhancing technical negotiation capacity within each administration.

This capacity building program will allow States to anchor the fundamental principles governing trade negotiations within their administration. The issues at stake in the professional preparation of the delegations shall be understood and assimilated.

Approach

A series of three seminars will be prepared by an international consultant, and validated by a sub regional workshop.

The trainer will conduct three seminars of three days each, for the executives of the relevant administrations, in each of the seven countries of the sub region. The seminars will revolve around the theory, preparation, evaluation and practice of negotiations.

This program will also produce a Training Manual and extension booklets on techniques used in the negotiation of international fisheries agreements. The course materials, the Manual along with press releases advertising the national training courses will be published on the project website.

Expected Results

This activity will result in better trained, more professional national, negotiation delegations. These will be better, informed and better oriented, and shall therefore be in a position to negotiate in a more concerted and effective way with foreign delegations. Foreign negotiators will thus be confronting a renewed determination, aiming at optimizing potential national fishery resources.