StewardFish Report on establishment and demonstration of the virtual leadership institute for fisherfolk
Developing capacity in leadership is critical to enhancing fisherfolk organizations’ roles in fisheries and marine ecosystem stewardship. A CNFO leadership institute was established in April 2020 through its inaugural session and is currently being demonstrated primarily via an online course. The CNFO, CERMES and FAO agreed that the CNFO should have full and clear ownership of their leadership institute with support upon request from CERMES, but also as needed from other project partners and other allies. Training is the main implementation focus among the areas of the institute, the others being mentoring, discussion forum and library. The three online training sessions to date have been fairly satisfactory, but suggestions for various means of improvement have been made. Observations and recommendations are described in detail but need to be complemented by reports directly from the CNFO. The way forward must focus on monitoring, evaluation, learning and adaptation from the current test course and building the capacity of the CNFO to deliver all four components of the leadership institute. It is not too early to plan for further resource mobilization to support the sustainability of the leadership institute, including drawing in fisherfolk not currently in organizations so as to expand the population from which to seek successors and institutionalize succession planning.