In a first for the community, the fishing community will soon be receiving awards and recognition like other industry players. This is intent behind the just announced annual Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Awards (SFA).
The SFA aims to enhance the exchange of ideas, awareness, recognition of and recent developments in artisanal fishing. The awards seek to celebrate East Africans who give their time, expertise and passion on behalf of our precious natural resources.
Across 15 categories, this annual event celebrates and acknowledges regional champions working in fisheries as well as nature protection, climate action and care for communities while supporting food security and nutrition, sustainable economies, sustainable societies, sustainable environment, gender equity and equality.
The SFA Awards look at major categories which include Best Fisher of the Year, Best Landing Site of the Year, Innovations Award, Blue Heroes Award, Life time Achievers award, Young Fisheries Entrepreneur Award, Sustainable Fisheries Community Award, Green Cities of the future Award, Women Achievers award among others.
The SFA awards seek to take forward the recommendations from the celebrations of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 that arose from the International Conference on Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture(ICAFA) that took place in September 2022 in Jinja in commemoration of IYAFA2022.The main purpose of the awards therefore is to recognise and award efforts geared towards sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition.
Objectives of the Awards
The objectives of the awards is to:
- Enhance recognition, awareness, understanding and actions to support the contribution and sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture towards food security and nutrition
- Promote a platform for recognising innovative blue technologies, practices and research findings among fishers, environmentalists, governments and development partners to further strengthen their capacity to enhance sustainability, social development and well-being
- Bring together a diverse range of practitioners, scientists, development partners and industry representatives working in crosscutting sectors.
The award ceremony will take place on 28th April at Sheraton Hotel Kampala