The fishery sector holds significant potential for economic and social development in many least developed countries. However, those countries are often unable to tap into that potential owing to inadequate productive capacities, lack of basic infrastructure, the artisanal or traditional nature of the sector and stringent food safety and quality standards in major export markets.

Through this project, UNCTAD developed a comprehensive training manual on fisheries consisting of six modules and trained more than 500 experts, policy practitioners and officials from several least developed countries and other vulnerable economies on how to harness the potential of the fishery sector for socioeconomic development, improve the management of fish resources and meet the food safety and quality standards of developed country markets. The training helped to identify the most pressing challenges facing the fishery sector in five project countries and to articulate policy as well as institutional responses to address those challenges. At the policy and regulatory levels, the project led countries to express interest in adjusting their domestic food safety standards to meet international public and private standards in order to gradually be able to export to high-end markets. Important steps were also taken to develop a domestic aquaculture subsector, including the establishment of a multi-stakeholder task force to build a model for developing marine-based and freshwater aquaculture.

In one project country, a law requiring all vessels fishing in its sovereign waters to offload on its soil was introduced to add and retain value to its economy, create employment opportunities and generate more income in vulnerable sections of its society. Another project country expressed a commitment to establishing a national research and development centre dedicated to the fishery sector. At the institutional level, the project led to the establishment in two model countries of two regional centres of excellence regarding fishery development, which, with appropriate funding support, will run regular regional courses for least developed countries in Africa and Asia, allowing for the sharing of experiences, technical knowledge and inputs from fisheries in a sustainable manner.