What to read after Report of the Expert Consultation on Improving Planning and Policy Development in Aquaculture?

The Expert Consultation was convened by FAO in order to elaborate guidelines on how to improve the process of aquaculture policy formulation and policy implementation. The twenty-seventh session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), held in Rome, Italy, in March 2007 and the third session of the FAO COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture, held in New Delhi, India, in September 2006, had both indicated that guidance was required on planning and policy formulation and implementation monitoring in the aquaculture sector. The Expert Consultation had before it a comprehensive background document on the subject matter and recommended that two outputs be produced by FAO: (i) an FAO Fisheries Technical Paper on planning and policy formulation in aquaculture development that would include a full review of background information and the outcomes of the discussions held by the Consultation; and (ii) an FAO Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries booklet on planning and policy development in aquaculture that would be a more concise document highlighting steps towards good planning, policy formulation and implementation for the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector. The Consultation produced a detailed outline of the technical guidelines. It agreed on the definitions of policy, strategy and action plan and on the main phases of policy development processes. It highlighted the importance of considerations such as legitimacy, participation in such processes, but in specific circumstances, the inevitability of trade-offs and the possible resort to hard choices. In determining the link between policy formulation and policy implementation and the characteristics of strategies as a means for implementing policies, the Consultation emphasized that coordination was one of the most important component of the policy implementation discourse. The Consultation also made recommendations regarding future FAO work in supporting aquaculture policy development worldwide.