Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG) has built the capacity of representatives of the Regional Small Pelagics Co-management Committee  (SPCC)

The workshop brought together CaFGOAG’s SPCC members from the four coastal regions: Western Region, Central Region, Greater Accra Region and Volta Region.

In his opening remarks, the President of the Association, Nana Kweigyah,  congratulated participants for being elected to represent CaFGOAG at the various Regional SPCC.

He charged the representatives to be committed to the responsibilities placed on them as representatives of canoe and gear owners, and to work hard to justify why canoe and gear owners have been brought onboard in the quest to recover Ghana's small pelagic fishery.

 He called on participants to be proud of the opportunity to serve fisherfolks at such a level.

"There’s a need to ensure that the SPCC and CaFGOAG maximizes roles, inputs, output, and effectiveness for the good of all artisanal fishers, and the entire fisheries fraternity,” he said.

The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Fisheries Commission, Hannah Adjei Boakye, expressed her appreciation for the invitation, and the initiative by CaFGOAG to build capacities of her representatives.

She appealed to participants to learn to own the process to improve participation of fishers in decision-making.

Kwadwo Kyei Yamoah of Nsemkafo Consult, the workshop facilitator, took participants through the co-management policy and the implementation process.

He led the discussion to develop communication and feedback action plan for CaFGOAG to improve internal and external communications around SPCC and fisheries management as a whole.

Code of Conduct for CaFGOAG SPCC members, and CaFGOAG communication and feedback strategies were discussed at the workshop.

Participants at the end of the workshop expressed their appreciation to the National Executive Committee of CaFGOAG for the initiative which they said will contribute to making them effective at the SPCCs.