Spanish Cooperation will fund a project to promote entrepreneurship and employment in the Blue Economy in Cabo Verde with €160,000 according to an agreement to be signed in Praia on Wednesday, according to the FAO.
The project will be implemented for a year and, according to a source from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), should benefit youths and adults to establish a cooperation platform to promote entrepreneurship, train fishermen and fish sellers to “promote the integration of the value chain” fishing and tourism, applying the principles of the Blue Economy, but also ensure greater “autonomy of actors in the fisheries sector.
The aim is to carry out “awareness, communication, knowledge transfer and capacity building actions, ensuring that 40%tof the total beneficiaries are women,” said the FAO, which, together with the Cabo Verdean government and Spanish cooperation, has drawn up the project “Promoting entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy,” to “contribute to the process of sustainable transition to the Blue Economy in Cape Verde.
The agreement to implement this project, to be signed today between the parties and which provides funding of US$167,200 (€160,000) by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, has as partners the Cabo Verdean ministry of maritime affairs and Pro-Empresa, a public institution, with FAO as the executing agency.
It will also ensure the application of knowledge acquired in the development of enterprises and “the sustainability and promotion of new products and new markets.
FAO stressed that the Blue Economy “is a new approach to stimulate sustainable growth, based on ecosystem services provided by marine and coastal resources,” generating “new jobs and investment opportunities” linked, in particular, to innovations “that offer competitive advantages to emerging activities and existing value chains” with “new products or access to new markets.
At the end of 2021, Cabo Verde had 3,125 artisanal fishermen and 1,881 fish sellers, 1,434 artisanal motorboats and 127 industrial and semi-industrial fishing vessels, according to provisional data from the 5th General Fishing Census, which took place from 22 November to 7 December 2021.
The data also points out that since 2011, when the previous survey was conducted in Cabo Verde, human resources in the fisheries sector have increased by over 1,500 workers.
According to the same census, the country also has three canneries and an aquaculture unit, among other fisheries sector infrastructures, conducted by the Institute of the Sea, with the support of the Cabo Verde National Institute of Statistics.
