OSPESCA Alumni Meeting

During a visit to central America and the Caribbean in October 2024, GRÓ FTP director, Mr. Thor Asgeirsson, visited the headquarters of GRÓ FTP regional partners OSPESCA (Central America Fisheries and Aquaculture Organization) and CRFM (Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism). The purpose of the visit was to rekindle the long standing partnership between GRÓ FTP and these regional organizations and to discuss current needs and challenges, and future direction in fisheries development.

When at the OSPESCA headquarters in San Salvador a virtual meeting was held with former OSPESCA fellows. 12 former fellows attended the event and shared their experience from the six months training in Iceland and how the training has helped them in their current posts. All of the fellows reflected positively on their experience in Iceland and many of them have been given new and more demanding roles in their fisheries administration. Mr. Asgeirsson was received by the OSPESCA director, Mr. Jose Infante, and the visit to was organized by Ms. Diana Elizabeth Barahona Hernandez, a fellows from 2021, who has recently been recruited to OSPESCA as a senior technical officer.

After the visit to OSPESCA Mr. Asgeirsson visited the CRFM Secretariat in Belize city. At the CRFM secretariat he met with Mr. Milton Haughton, the Executive Director, and Dr. Sandra Grant, CRFM deputy director, for a full-day meeting on the cooperation between GRÓ FTP and CRFM. At the meeting Mr. Haughton expressed his gratitude towards GRÓ FTP for playing a key role in capacity building of fisheries professionals in CRFM´s member countries through GRÓ FTP six months training in Iceland. Since 2007 about 40 fisheries professional have received GRÓ FTP fellowship and five have received scholarship for MSc studies in Iceland. In addition to the fellowships, numerous workshops and short courses have been held in the CRFM member countries addressing burning issues in fisheries development.