Introduction
Description
Objectives
Vision
Organizational Chart

Introduction

The West Africa Regional Fisheries Programme (WARFP) aims at improving the sustainable management of fish and aquatic resources in the West Africa sub-region.

In Ghana, the Government has received financing in the amount of US$53.8 million to develop the WARFP initiative in the country. US$50.3 million of this amount is provided by the International Development Association (IDA),  and the remaining US$3.5 million is from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Government intends to apply part of this fund to payments for goods, related works, and consulting services to be procured under the Programme.

The Programme’s development objective, which is to improve the sustainable management of Ghana’s fish and aquatic resources, is to be achieved by:

1. Strengthening the country’s capacity to sustainably govern and manage the fisheries;
2. Reducing illegal fishing;
3. Increasing the value and profitability generated by fish and aquatic resource exploitation and the proportion of that value captured by the country; and
4. Developing aquaculture.

The direct programme beneficiaries include the estimated 206,000 marine and Lake Volta fishers, at least 27,000 women fish processors, and over 3,000 fish farmers.

Project Description

Ghana has significant and valuable fish stocks and a strong tradition and culture of fishing. The country produces around 440,000 tons of fish a year from its marine fisheries, inland waters and aquaculture. As many as 2.2 million people are dependent on the fisheries sector for their livelihoods. However, most of Ghana’s fish resources are heavily overexploited and from all sources the country is just able to produce 50% of its annual requirements. A large amount of foreign exchange is therefore expended to import frozen fish annually to supplement domestic production. This is however, not sustainable into the future. Against the background of favourable natural factors like good climate and abundant water resources, aquaculture is seen as the more sustainable way to bridge the yawning gap between domestic fish requirements and supply.

The West Africa Regional Fisheries Programme (WARFP) in Ghana aims to help Ghana address the constraints of the fishery and sustainably increase the net economic benefits from its fisheries and aquaculture through four related components:

Objectives Of WARFP

This project is to strengthen the country’s capacity to sustainably govern and manage the fisheries, reduce illegal fishing, increase the value and profitability generated by the fish resources and the proportion of that value captured by the country and develop aquaculture for increased national food security, economic development and poverty reduction.

Vision of the Project

Ghana intends to achieve middle income status by 2015, and to surpass the Millennium Development Goals by halving poverty to 26 percent, according to the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (2010-2013). The Government is targeting the fisheries sector as one of the drivers of this advance (NDC Manifesto). However, under the current management regime, there is a real risk that current GDP contribution from this sector (roughly 2.4 percent) will continue to decline. This project aims to help secure the contribution of the sector to GDP, and lay the foundation for increased profitability and growth as a result, thereby supporting implementation of the country’s Shared Growth and Development Agenda.

Organization Chart