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Comprehensive Traceability Principles

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    • Data-informed decisions
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Maximize ecological, social, and economic benefits

Understand the ecological, social, and economic aspects of the eCDT program to maximize benefits using a comprehensive approach.
Full description
Implement an eCDT program that yields comprehensive benefits including improved data for: improved fisheries management (ecological), reduced risk of human rights and labor abuses in seafood supply chains (social), and efficiencies and compliance with seafood import requirements (economic).

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
  • Gather economic data to prepare for cost-benefit analysis
    • Collect baseline data of costs involved with the current fisheries management program, including food safety and regulatory compliance. Set expectations around a feasible return on investment, as financial returns may take time to manifest
  • Be inclusive in identifying stakeholders
    • Identify if the program will impact marginalized and disenfranchised stakeholders (including migrant workers and women) and take steps to include them

Relevant Guidance

  • Case Study

Business Benefits of Electronic Catch Documentation and Traceability Technologies

USAID Oceans and Fisheries Partnership
2020
USAID Oceans has partnered with members of the public and private sectors across Southeast Asia to pilot a range of traceability technologies. This guide presents impact studies from each node of the seafood supply chain, exploring the various applications of eCDT technologies, benefits realized, and recommendations for further enhancements.
  • 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 helps teams deepen their relationships with allies, measure stakeholder engagement and address community concerns. The toolkit includes short case studies and offers concrete tools to… Read More about Maximize ecological, social, and economic benefits
  • Report

Key Data Element Collection and Return on Investment for Electronic Catch Documentation and Traceability

USAID Oceans
2020
Report on a case study regarding the collection of key data elements (KDEs) and return on investment (ROI) from research conducted with private sector partners in their using electronic catch documentation and traceability (eCDT) technologies at the USAID Oceans project learning sites.
Find More Relevant Resources
  • Identify how worker welfare will be monitored and supported
    • Identify governing agencies that have jurisdiction over data related to worker welfare and data security issues 
  • Implement safeguards to mitigate negative impacts of eCDT data collection to worker rights and privacy
    • Consult existing data privacy laws, and identify processes, accountability mechanisms or new schemes for responding to privacy considerations and stakeholder/user concerns as needed
  • Design eCDT program to fit within larger fisheries management program
    • To inform alignment decisions, identify differences between the proposed eCDT program and the existing national strategy for fisheries management. Align data collection with stock assessment and/or integrate with existing fisheries management plans to ensure sustainable fishery management and promote biodiversity conservation
Relevant Guidance
  • Report

Seafood traceability for fisheries compliance: Country-level support for catch documentation schemes

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2017
This research focuses on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing occurring beyond national jurisdiction, in RFMOs. The authors define the core concepts and conduct SWOT analysis of country compliance of traceability requirements of their RFMOs. This study develops concrete recommendations on how to improve fish traceability systems to sustainably manage fisheries resources.
  • Guidance Document

A Human Rights-Based Approach to Data

United Nations
2018
In step with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and its Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs), this note aims to provide general guidance and elements of a common understanding on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Data (HRBAD), with a focus on issues of data collection and disaggregation.
  • Guidance Document

Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework

World Wildlife Fund
2020
This document outlines WWF’s environmental and social safeguards framework and its policies, standards, risk screening tools and planning documents, as well as the institutional arrangements that make implementation possible.
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  • Monitor and evaluate efficacy of eCDT program by analyzing data to determine if objectives (ecological, social, and economic) are being met

Ecological:

  • Evaluate whether data is accessed timely and analyzed usefully for fisheries management 
    • Ensure necessary agencies have clear data flows for more efficient fisheries management 

Social:

  • Assess the benefits, limitations, and challenges of the program in relation to equity and worker welfare
    • Analyze worker participation in the creation and implementation of the eCDT program. Track and resolve concerns raised from workers regarding the program’s efficacy and privacy

Economic:

  • Document costs of eCDT program implementation and project costs of long-term operation
    • Conduct cost–benefit analysis and/or a return-on-investment (ROI) study using the collected baseline economic data
Relevant Guidance
  • Tool / Toolkit

Calculating Return on Investment

Future of Fish
This suite of tools helps seafood companies estimate and thus better plan for traceability implementation, and then evaluate and monitor their ROI from traceability implementation.
  • SALT Feature

Overcoming Barriers: Indirect Business Benefits of Electronic Traceability

Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT)
2020
SALT has distilled lessons from existing traceability pilots to provide potential solutions to overcoming the challenges a company might face when adopting eCDT. This is the 1st in the “Overcoming Barriers” series and speaks to the indirect business benefits of eCDT, such as reducing risk, empowering marginalized groups, and improving ocean health.
  • Guidance Document

Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement in Biodiversity Programming

USAID
2018
This resource guide provides a framework for effective stakeholder engagement. It presents evidence-based, practical guidance regarding key steps and practices for effectively engaging stakeholders in biodiversity conservation programs (See Table 1 on page 5). It also provides teams with key tools and resources, allowing them to choose the approaches best suited to their needs.
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Are you interested in putting these Principles into practice?

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This product is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of FishWise and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.