Capacity development is a key mechanism for ensuring research quality and enabling impact. FISH Capacity development is a key mechanism for ensuring research quality and enabling impact. FISH pursued several pathways with diverse projects and partners to enhance capacities of key stakeholders. Short-term training activities were supported in multiple ways, often through partners and bilateral project investments, with over 500,000 participants in 20 countries from 2017–2021, of which xx percent were women.  

FISH offered short-term vocational, practical training in aquaculture through the Africa Aquaculture Research and Training Center in Egypt, with 323 people (70 of them women) from 32 countries participating. In 2019, FISH capacity development activities targeted researchers, national partners, farmers, and communities, and a total of 339 capacity development initiatives were initiated. Finally, FISH helped conduct practical short-term training in aquaculture technologies with the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Aquaculture Compact, expanding training in aquaculture practices and policies to 12 countries. 

Trainees, including small-scale fishers, fish farmers and others were supported with practical training on many topics, like production, business and nutrition-sensitive aquaculture. Partners in intermediary organizations, government research and extension agencies, vocational training institutions, civil society, and private sector organizations also received training on the application of key research findings. Training tools on gender transformative approaches, better management practices for aquaculture, fish health management and integrated production systems, among others, were widely shared to support sustained local and national capacity.  

n some cases, new digital channels were also used to extend the reach of training programs, such as vocational aquaculture training in Zambia supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and digital tools for extension and marketing support. FISH has also invested in translation and handover of many products to 22 vocational level training partners in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, helping to build longer-term capacity. 

Longer-term training focused on young researchers from developing countries and advanced research institute partners engaged in internships, masters and doctoral programs. Forty young researchers involved in PhD and related long-term educational programs represent the beginnings of a strong foundation of capacity in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. 

Vocational training resources 

FISH has generated a repository of reports, articles, educational posters, and presentations with over 750 documents, many of which can be used for vocational training purposes at the grass-roots levels. FISH has worked with many of its partners to support their vocational training objectives by integrating these documents as key resources for their trainers and students.  

Partners in this process included: 

1. Malawi Fisheries College, Natural Resources Development College (Zambia) 
2. Blue Planet (Norway/Global) 
3. The Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (Egypt) 
4. Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department (Odisha state, India) 
5. ArYoneOo Social Development Association (Myanmar) 
6. Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies (Nigeria) 
7. Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center 
8. Cambodian Institute for Research and Development 
9. Growway Partners (Cambodia) 
10. Social and Environmental Research Unit – Chiang Mai University 
11. The Right Kind (Bangladesh) 
12. BRAC (Bangladesh) 
13. Solomon Islands National University 
14. The Pacific Community
15. Wageningen University (Netherlands) 
16. Mississippi State University’s Fish Innovation Lab (USA) 
17. Tambuyog Development Centre (Philippines), CARE (USA/Global) 

The following collections take a transdisciplinary approach to addressing the most pressing issues in the fisheries and aquaculture development sector today and in the future. In this way, users can approach learning from a systems-thinking perspective to become stronger influencers in their future careers. 

Click on an Innovation topic below to find clusters of documents within it. We hope you find them useful.