Global Workshop on Nutrition-sensitive Fish Agri-food Systems 5-8 December 2017, Siem Reap, Cambodia

1. The evolution of nutrition-sensitivity in FAO
fisheries frameworks:
looking back and looking forward
Simon Funge-Smith, Senior Fishery Officer, FAO

2. Where did it start? League of Nations
1919 League of Nations established - forerunner of
the UN
Concerns over global food security
1936 Mixed Committee on the problem of nutrition,
second session, June 4th, 1936
• Physiological basis of nutrition
• Nutrition in various countries
• Statistics of food production, consumption
and prices
• Recognized value of fish in nutrition
• Did not recognize fish as key food group item to
track in global statistics

3. FAO established following WWII
FAO established to tackle threat of post war
global food insecurity
Indo-Pacific Fishery Council established
• In “ recognition of the importance of fish to food
security (in Asia)”
Start of FAO global fishery dataset
• FAO Statistics focus on national and global
production
• Increasing production = more food for everyone
• Fish’s role in the national food security account
considered of minor importance (except for Pacific
SIDS)
1945
1948
1950

4. 1965 FAO establishes its Committee on Fisheries
• Addressed international transboundary fisheries
• Resource assessment, intensification of production
Global food/fuel crisis; cod stock collapse
Fishery intensification = fish as a national
economic asset
• Efficient harvesting, maximizing catch of target
species
• Not nutritional value and access
Artisanal fisheries (already recognised in Asia)
• Tendency to overlook social & food security value of
small-scale fisheries
• Seen as subsistence, non-commercial
• Little contribution to GDP = low monitoring priority
FAO and Fish
1970

5. Change in thinking about food security and
nutrition
World Food Conference - effort to understand global
food insecurity
• Focus on global accounts of agricultural food production
• Food security = a country having enough affordable food
nationally
• Emphasis on dietary energy availability
• Fish = recognized as high quality food, but valued more as
a commodity
1981 • Food security reintroduces the issue of access
• Hunger and famine is not addressed by more food, but
improved distribution, social and economic rights
• Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and
Deprivation
• Focus on balanced nutrition
• Sufficient calories sufficient healthy diet
1974

6. More holistic way of looking at food
security and production systems
FAO Fisheries research begins cataloguing impacts
• Management concepts for small-scale fisheries:
economic and social aspects
• Recognizes failure of single-stock models in complex
fisheries
FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition
• Attempt to link health and nutrition
Fishery management paradigm starts to shift
• Efficient harvesting of a target stock
use system
• Need to consider impacts on non-target species,
habitats, fishery segments, other interactions
sustainable
1982
1992

7. Development of global norms
UN Conference on Environment and Development
• Putting environment first
• Ecosystem approaches emerge
FAO/WHO “International Conference on Nutrition”, Rome
• Defines food security = access to safe and nutritious food
• Encouraged research in role of micronutrients in …fish
FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries
• Highlighted relationship between fisheries and food security
Kyoto Declaration on the Sustainable Contribution of
Fisheries to Food Security
• Emphasized importance of fisheries as a global food source
• Principles of sustainable development of fishery resources
related to maintaining food security & nutrition
• “Enhance public awareness of the nutritional and health
values of fish and fishery products”
1992
1995

8. Ecosystem approach to fisheries, small-
scale fisheries (SSF), & nutrition
FAO members endorse “ecosystem approach”
• “take into account the dependence of artisanal and small-
scale fishing communities on fishing for their life, livelihoods
and food security”
• Doesn’t mention nutrition
“Increasing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to
poverty alleviation and food security”
• notes nutritional qualities of fish and particular role of fish in
nutritional aspects of food security
• underlines importance of SSF for the world fish supply as
half of all fish caught for human consumption comes from SSF
“Human dimension of ecosystem approach to fisheries”
• “link biological resources data with that of poverty and
nutrition”
2003
2005
2008

9. Growing number of valuation studies
2004 WorldFish studies recognize global
importance of tropical inland
fisheries
2009 “Sunken Billions” economic value of
lost rent from marine overfishing
2010 Other marine fisheries valuations
• Driven by broader issue of
sustainability and environment
• Less emphasis on SSF
• Little or no focus on nutrition aspect

10. Rio+20 “The Future We Want”
2012 Recognized need to address healthy
ecosystems – link to nutrition
“..stress the crucial role of healthy marine
ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and
sustainable aquaculture for food security
and nutrition and in providing for the
livelihoods of millions of people.”
….but where are inland fisheries?!

11. • We don’t see it in
national
aggregated
accounts
• Some of the
poorest countries in
the world are the
most dependent
upon inland fish
They are here….inland fisheries feed a huge number of rural people
Per capita freshwater fish availability
>2kg/capita/year
Low Income Food Deficit Countries (dark blue)
Landlocked countries (medium blue)

12. Recognition of small-scale fisheries and
their importance to food security and
nutrition
FAO/WorldFish/WB Hidden Harvests
Demonstrates importance of small-scale fisheries
FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable
Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food
Security and Poverty Eradication
Explicit recognition of the food security and
nutrition aspects of fisheries
“increase awareness of the nutritional benefits of
eating fish”
2012
2015

13. Downscaling - moving beyond national
accounts
Large sub-national/demographic variation in fish
in nutrition
• Aggregated national accounts provide weak basis
for policy
Tools used to track human health, diets and
wealth tend to be blind to fish
• Over-focus on terrestrial food production
(agriculture) and farmed protein sources (livestock)
~2005 onwards FAO promotes routine inclusion
of fish in global Agricultural Census

14. Starting to question role of fish in nutrition
• Adding human well-being into the management of
fisheries requires a deeper understanding of value
and purpose of fish production systems:
• What is the role of a particular sub-sector?
• Who gets the fish?
• Where is the economic benefit going?
• Does this reach across the country, or become focused
within dependent communities?
• Is there hidden fish consumption we don’t know about?
• Greater recognition of SSF and their role in nutrition
and food security amongst coastal and rural poor
populations

15. Looking forward

16. Powerful research tools becoming
accessible..
• More nuanced questions can be informed by merging and
integrating different datasets
• Fisheries data can give landings and species
• Household consumption surveys indicate importance of fish in
diets
• Household economic and consumption surveys provide
geographic and wealth disaggregated information on
food in the home
• may or may not include fish
• GIS mapping , remote sensing
• populations, water, aquaculture and other spatial data sets
• Case studies and research provides sub-samples on
specific groups

17. Where next?
Improve and normalize message of fish’s role in
diets, livelihoods etc.
Develop evidence base to reinforce role and value
fish in international/national (agricultural)
development
• Update of Hidden Harvest
• Using global databases on fish/ food consumption,
• Nutrient contribution from fish in relation to other
animal-source foods
Session on Fish and Nutrition IUNS-ICN , Tokyo,
2021
Develop a fish element “Nutrition-sensitive fish agri-
food systems” for toolkit on “Nutrition-sensitive
Agriculture”