Data collection and management of CRFM member states

CRFM, in collaboration with UNU-FTP, convened a 3-day Workshop to review the status of statistics and information management, and to make recommendations for strengthening capacity for improved performance by CRFM States in the future. The Workshop brought together a group of national, regional and international fisheries experts, working on various aspects of statistics and information management.

Workshop discussions were informed by a number of working and reference documents, as well as oral presentations covering, inter alia: consideration of CRFM legal, policy and institutional framework; developments and performance of various CRFM and CRFM/UNU-FTP initiatives in statistics and information, including training courses, annual scientific meetings, CRFM technical working groups, and use of databases; the typical characteristsics of current national statistics and information systems; evolving demands in terms of management advice; data analysis options for limited data situations; and incorporation of ICT tools.

National and regional capacity building options were considered, taking into account the nature of the supporting framework at both the national (Country) and regional (CRFM) levels, and various other management and management information needs, such as stakeholder involvement, better communication and reporting support, and optimised application of ICT tools.

Four Working Group sessions were held during the Workshop to evaluate the issues and needs at the following 4 main levels within the management system: field sampling and data collection; database management and manipulation; data analysis and meaningful reporting; monitoring and evaluation of performance of statistics and information. The outputs of the 4 Working Groups were presented and discussed briefly during the final plenary session. As such, the working groups results have been compiled into a working matrix and prepared as a 'stand-alone’ reference document titled Proposed intervention points and actions for Strategy for capacity building to strengthen fisheries data and information management in the CRFM. This reference document is included as Appendix 4 of the present Report.