S
I O F
P
OUTH WEST NDIAN
CEAN
ISHERIES
ROGRAMME
(SWIOFP)
NEWSFLASH 8: MARCH 2004












An occasional newsletter to update













members of SWIOFP on current





develo pments.






A further significant milestone has been reached with the successful
conclusion of the 3rd Plenary meeting held in Maputo on 24 & 25 March
2004.

Administration
· The SWIOFP secretariat has been exceptionally active, especially in facilitating the
3rd Plenary. This not only involved organizing the meeting but also the preparation of
documents well in advance.
· Good news has been the re-assignment of Dr. Bill Lane from the World Bank to
SWIOFP. His original enthusiasm helped shape the project and we welcome his
guidance in years to come.
· The SWIOFP structure allows for full members as well as observers. Good news is the
recent announcement that Seychelles had decided to participate as a full member of
SWIOFP. The meeting acknowledged that Seychelles could contribute significantly to
the success of SWIOFP. Mauritius indicated too that she might request full
membership in the future.
· The secretariat has appealed to all members to demonstrate greater diligence in
executing tasks speedily and adhering to deadlines. There is also growing concern
about some members who cancel attendance at the very last moment or fail to show up
at pre-planned workshops. This compromises project funding as pre-paid travel and
hotel costs are seldom fully recovered.

Project activities.
· Proceedings of the Operations and Procurement Theme Group, facilitated by Tanzania on
11 and 12 February, have been circulated. Comment from members is now urgently
sought.

· The 3rd Plenary proved to be well attended with six countries and five key regional
institutions represented. Although detailed proceeding will soon be made available, some
points are highlighted here:

· Mozambican Vice-minister of fisheries, Alfredo Massinga, not only opened the meeting
but also demonstrated his personal support and interest by spending considerable time at
the deliberations. He reaffirmed Mozambique's continued support and emphasised the
regional need for SWIOFP.

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· Bill Lane, in his opening comments, regretted the recent lapse in World Bank support but
simultaneously congratulated all involved for the considerable progress that had been
made. He assured the participants that he was committed to actively supporting SWIOFP.
In response to queries from several members, a number of important points were
discussed and confirmed.

1. Each member country now needs to establish its national SWIOFP management
team of experts so as to form a National Management structure. This group would
then have to meet and develop their own SWIOFP national plan to suit their
specific needs, providing such a plan broadly adhered to the SWIOFP objectives.
Such national plans would need to be individually costed and this would provide
the basis of an agreement between each of these governments and the World Bank.
It was agreed that a Regional Management structure was also needed to assist in
overall coordination and that this task could be allocated to a particular country.
2. The next Plenary meeting would be considered a pre-appraisal workshop in which
the detailed plans and associated costs are debated before a final appraisal can take
place early in 2005.
3. It was noted that collaboration with other project was imperative and that all
members should actively work towards this.

A feature of the meeting was the report-back from each of the theme working groups that had
been completed. This included the Science Plan, The Data Management and the Procurement
groups. Considerable discussion ensued and the following broad points emerged:
1. Notwithstanding the good results, the themes remained in a conceptual stage and were
now in need of more detailed finalization. Each of these groups is to continue with
their development. Two of the themes had not yet made progress, namely those
dealing with project management and legal issues. It was agreed that Madagascar
should be encouraged to undertake the former while France agreed to instigate the
latter theme as soon as possible.
2. It was agreed that large pelagics, such as tuna and billfish, would indeed be considered
in the SWIOFP project in collaboration with the Indian Ocean Tina Commissions,
with special focus on issues not yet being addressed by the IOTC.
3. The study area had been discussed in the past and it was agreed that the 150m depth-
contour was artificial and posed a limitation. A more functional approach was
proposed, including consideration of the species involved and the nature of the fishery.
This would be further developed by the Science Group.

Based on considerable discussion and the urgent need to complete the final Project Proposal, a
new work schedule was developed with time-specific milestones, culminating in a further
plenary meeting.

Updated Table of Activities

INTERIM PROGRESS


Task
Action
Status
Deadline
Secretarial support.
Appoint
Achieved
Completed
Science Plan
South Africa ­ MCM
Concept completed.
15-20 August 04
Final plan needed.
Data Management Theme
Kenya-KMFRI
Concept completed
15 September
Final plan needed
Procurement Workshop
Tanzania-TAFIRI-
Workshop review
10 April 04
comments needed

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Procurement Theme
Tanzania-TAFIRI-
Concept completed
31 October
Legal issues
France
To be initiated
September 04
Project management
Madagascar
Needs promotion &
September 04
support
SWIOFP Plenary 3
Mozambique ­ IIP
Achieved
25-26 Mar. 04
Arrange and prepare
Maputo
Create and manage SWIOFP
Design and host,
Achieved/ ongoing
Completed
Website
Compile content- send out
for review
Interface with other WIO
Document other
Ongoing.
Ongoing
programmes, including LME
programmes; circulate-
establish links.
Negotiate Pdf-B extension to
Secretariat to expedite
Achieved
Completed
end 05
Project Concept Note
Secretariat
Draft completed
Completed
SWIOFP Plenary 4 (Pre-
Secretariat & all members.
Underway
November/December
appraisal)
2004
SWIOFP Plenary 5: (Final
Need final planning
Preliminary stage only
March 2005
appraisal)
Final project vision document
Compile draft; circulate
Basic framework being
Mid 2005
submitted to GEF
designed
Project launched


Late 2005


Events and related activities
The SWIOFP project continues to establish wider linkages, especially with the Somali-
Agulhas LME project that has entered a Pdf-B phase. Statements by several countries
indicated that SWIOFP was increasingly being considered as part of their overall national
workplan. Details were also released about hits on the SWIOFP website, which indicated that
more than 3500 visits from a range of countries had been made.

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Ana Paula Baloi
Instituto Nacional de Investigação Pesqueira (IIP)
SWIOFP coordinator
Maputo, Mozambique
Tel: + 258 1 490536 / 490307 / 499963
Fax + 258 1 492112
Email: swiofp@moziip.org
Web: www.swiofp.org

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