Governance Dialog Process Activity Leader: George Hutchful

1.2.3 Governance Dialog Process Activity Leader: George Hutchful

Activity Team: David Mills, Godfred Ameyaw, Kyei Kwadwo, Donkris Mevuta Facilitating a ‘governance dialog’ is a major pillar of the move in Year 3 to clearly articulate the way forward for governance reform. The objective is to bring together stakeholders across multiple scales in Ghana, including experience built up through capacity building exercises and exposure visits, as well as regional and global expertise. The central objective will be to discuss, plan and map possible pathways for implementing nested governance systems in the Western Region. The greatest challenge and the focus of this dialogue will be to define in specific terms the roles and responsibilities of community-based groups – empowered by a specific legally binding mandate that will enable them to engage in fisheries governance in a meaningful and effective way. One of the strategies will mobilize district level fisheries interest and facilitate communications with the district assemblies on fisheries governance. This interest group would have the task of identification of opportunities and strategies for seeking a more presentpermanent voice on fisheries within the assemblies. The process must be supported by a well-articulated set of goals, a consultative process of participant selection, a focused program of information sharing prior to formal dialog, in addition to a well-planned and facilitated dialog process. This activity needs to link very strongly with capacity building efforts see activity 1.2.2 above. Key inputs to the process include information papers on objectives of the process, change in Ghanaian fisheries, current institutional setting of fisheries governance and current biological status of the fishery. Focus groups and training exercises with local stakeholders building an understanding of goals and the capacity to articulate issues will lead up to the dialog process. Outputs will include a policy paper outlining critical steps to providing enabling conditions, and ways forward for nested fisheries governance in Ghana. We need explicit recognition here of linkages between fisheries and coastal governance. Strong collaboration with the World Bank program will be sought for this activity as well. Specific tasks will include: Legal and institutional analysis While much of the institutional setting of fisheries in Ghana is articulated in the sector review, we now have a series of specific questions regarding the implementation of enabling conditions for community based management that need to be addressed. The degree to which this implementation can be accommodated under existing laws needs to be set out in detail. Provision of background documents for dialog To maximize the value of the dialog process, it is critical that all participants start with a basic level of knowledge about the system, and external participants in particular are provided with background information on fisheries in Ghana. While the basis of the information for this has been collected and assembled in the ‘Our Coasts’ report and the ‘Fisheries Sector Review’, there is considerable additional detail that can be added from work over the past year. Policy briefs developed under Component 1.2.1 will provide this information 31 Governance dialog A one-week dialog between stakeholders, managers and international experts will be facilitated early in the project year. It is envisaged that this will start with a fishing community visit lead by community members and stakeholders with the objective of providing a deeper understanding to outside experts on the context of fishing in Ghana. This will then progress to a 3-day workshop focusing on local context, lessons from study tours and global success stories. Policy brief on governance structure The primary output from the dialog will be the fishery-specific components of a policy brief outlining plausible and productive designs for nested coastal and fisheries governance, institutional requirements, and the steps required to implement recommendations. It is anticipated that this will take considerable development following the dialog, as it must be integrated with the legal and institutional analysis to map the pathway forwards. Table of Key Activities and Milestones Task 1.2.3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Legal and institutional analysis completed X Consultative selection of dialog participants X Dates for dialog finalized X Workshop with stakeholder groups held X Background papers completed X Dialog held X Policy brief draft for circulation X Policy brief released X Draft scientific publication on consultative processes X List of Key Outputs ｸ Policy brief on implementation of nested governance ｸ Draft scientific paper on consultative processes in governance design

1.2.4 Promoting Compliance and Enforcement of Fisheries Laws Activity Leader: Kyei Yamoah.