SAFTID

SAFTID (Sustainable Artisanal Fisheries Training, Infrastructure & Development) is an initiative for a not-for-profit programme for economic development in coastal areas on the Horn of Africa. Its purpose will be to create jobs and build skills bases amongst artisanal fishing communities, along with raising seafood product quality and supporting conservation. SAFTID will be focused primarily on training and education. Its key function will be to help local fishing communities to achieve the following:

• Extend species range caught (amongst other things, balancing personal incomes throughout the year, regardless of species seasons).
• Increase overall catch volumes.
• Improve product handling and quality.
• Understand basic conservation and sustainability.
• Improve health and safety levels.
• Improve commercial organisation.

The overall goal of SAFTID is to help local communities by improving the profitability, safety and natural sustainability of their fishing activities.

This will be achieved through a combination of local courses delivered by experts provided by OSG companies and others (which will include both fisheries and business education arms), in collaboration with the Berbera Maritime & Fisheries Academy and in cooperation with NGO entities.

SAFTID will seek to avoid ‘helping’ in a way that undermines the commercial viability of how those concerned earn their livings. It will endeavour not to create false markets through subsidy and any ‘capital asset gifting’ will be considered extremely carefully, to determine whether it is justified as a seminal one-off catalyst for future sustainability.