Training
Submitted by webmaster | 11 / May / 2015Introduction
The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) subscribes to the principle of capacity building in order to build the human skills and institutional capacity of members in fishery management and related disciplines. Traditionally FFA’s role in training included a commitment to facilitate and coordinate activities for members to improve capacity in fisheries management and development. The medium term forecast encapsulated in a Statement of Intent (SOI) demonstrates the Secretariat’s intended approach to ensure the successful implementation of FFA’s mandate.
Due to the nature of specialist expertise at FFA (fisheries knowledge) and the technical work performed by staff (institutional arrangements, support for leadership etc), FFA is in the business of building and developing capacity. However, it is not primarily a provider of tertiary education and as such does not conform to any national qualifications framework.
FFA’s role in regional fisheries training has now evolved to include being on tertiary education provider advisory boards (industry and faculty) to ensure students across a broad range of associated disciplines have sufficient understanding of oceanic fisheries issues relevant to their field, as well as to improve the more focused oceanic marine fisheries core and advanced programs and courses in a defined and structured mode of regional fisheries training. There is also involvement of FFA staff in regional and national fisheries capacity development needs identification, some aspects of funding coordination (including involvement in selection processes for students to be awarded with scholarships) and the design of various fisheries courses with specialist delivery on core modules.
FFA Context
As an organisation committed to capacity building, FFA delivers training on the basis of formal requests from members and recommendations made through the Forum Fisheries Committee (FFC). When a justified need is identified, consideration will be given as to how the need can best be met within the constraints of limited resources and available expertise. FFA endeavours to ascertain whether an existing program can be accessed to achieve the desired outcomes and if not then other options will be investigated before any assurances are made to members.
The logic behind FFA continuing to be involved with fisheries training is demonstrated in our ability to implement mandates for a membership that is diverse and includes varying levels of development, institutional capacity and governance. National priorities are considered within the national context and regional training programs are derived from members’ needs and goals.
The resultant increase in expertise amongst FFA members offers cooperative capacity building opportunities between members. Regional or subregional approaches such as pooling of resources for specialist skills and sharing of information underlines the key strength of FFA members, which is cooperation.
Related Links
Regional Fisheries Training Framework