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Comprehensive Traceability Principles

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Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders

Collaborate early and often with the people that will use the eCDT program, people affected by it, and advocates of both groups to improve program uptake and create multi-stakeholder oversight.
Full description
Be inclusive in identifying stakeholders—including groups such as fishers’ rights advocates to support workers—and consult them early, repeatedly, and with consideration of their needs. Meaningfully engage with stakeholders to identify goals, responsibilities, and oversight in the eCDT program design. Provide technical and capacity support to implementers.

APPLY THE PRINCIPLE

There are three main phases to building an electronic catch documentation and traceability (eCDT) program:

INITIATE – includes early research, goal setting, and stakeholder engagement;
DESIGN – includes identifying technology, assigning responsibilities, and creating the systems to support the program;
IMPLEMENT – includes piloting the program, adaptively managing, and scaling it.

Here you can see how this principle manifests throughout each phase.

  • Initiate
  • Design
  • Implement
  • In consultation with stakeholders, clearly define goals, scale, and objectives (ecological, social, and economic) of the comprehensive eCDT program
  • Communicate incentives/benefits to foster stakeholder participation 
    • Identify and clarify the value proposition of eCDT to a variety of stakeholders (business, compliance, science, workers, etc.)
  • Be inclusive in identifying stakeholders
    • Properly identify the stakeholders from governments, affected fisheries (including small-scale), technology/service providers, supply chain companies, and worker/labor groups, whether aiming to develop an eCDT program on an international, national, or regional level 
  • Consult stakeholders early, repeatedly, and with sensitivity to their needs
    • Identify the preferred form of communication and makeup of stakeholder groups–ensuring equitable inclusion across marginalized and disenfranchised groups– which will depend on scope, objectives, and fishery characteristics. Consider power dynamics and relationships among stakeholders in the consultation process (e.g., workers and businesses, men and women, government and private sector)

Relevant Guidance

  • Case Study

The Business Wins of Seafood Traceability Technology

Future of Fish
2014
These case studies accompany Future of Fish’s ‘Getting There from Here: A Guide for Companies Implementing Seafood Supply-Chain Traceability Technology’. This case study series highlights vendor-specific examples of market incentives… Read More about Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders
  • Tool / Toolkit

Identify and Describe Stakeholders

FHI 360
2012
This toolkit s a guide to engaging a wide range of key stakeholders. Based on best practices and the experience of clinical trial experts and community-based advocates, this unique resource… Read More about Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders
  • Guidance Document

Gender Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture: A Training Handbook

USAID Oceans and Fisheries Partnership (USAID Oceans)
2018
This training guide was developed to build the capacity of practitioners, experts, and students working in fisheries and aquaculture in gender theory and practice through interactive presentations and case studies.
Find More Relevant Resources
  • Minimize exemptions from eCDT program data collection, but state clearly where they do exist
    • Are small-scale fishers or certain vessel types (e.g., small vessels) to be exempted from the program? State this early
  • Clarify roles, responsibilities, and needs by stakeholder 
    • Identify expertise and capacity of stakeholders and leverage existing expertise. Define roles and capacity of both private sector and government bodies, especially within the various government agencies implementing the principles including labor, employment, and food safety (e.g., Who will cover the costs? Who will collect or verify the data?)
  • As needed, formulate agreements between agencies for sharing information and responsibilities 
    • Explicitly identify the responsibilities and authorities of each agency as it pertains to the goals of the comprehensive eCDT program, and determine how to best integrate processes of various involved agencies to make the program efficient
  • Ensure stakeholders from relevant supply chains formally agree to support the eCDT program 
    • Obtain both commitment and action (implementation, monitoring, control, and enforcement) all the way along supply chains to derive counter-IUU fishing and worker protection benefits
Relevant Guidance
  • Memorandum

Proposal for European Data Governance

European Commission
2020
The proposal is the first of a set of measures announced in the 2020 European strategy for data. The instrument aims to foster the availability of data for use by… Read More about Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders
  • Tool / Toolkit

Collaboration Mapping Tools

USAID Learn
2018
Collaboration is important in order to identify areas of shared interest and potential cooperation, avoid duplication of efforts, share knowledge, and develop new ideas to address shared development challenges. Resources… Read More about Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders
Find More Relevant Resources
  • Provide user assistance, technical support, and capacity building as needed
    • Provide training to stakeholders across the supply chain. Use culturally effective methods and ensure instructions are available in useful formats
Relevant Guidance
  • Guidance Document

Technical Guidance on the Design and Implementation of Electronic Catch Documentation and Traceability Systems

USAID Oceans & Fisheries Partnership
2020
This technical guidance document is a practical guide for developing and implementing electronic catch documentation and traceability systems that can be aligned to the different capacities, circumstances, and needs of… Read More about Be inclusive and collaborative with stakeholders
Find More Relevant Resources

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