FIFNA makes the first-ever network for small scale fisher communities

By Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

Small-scale fishers will benefit from the establishment of a Fish Finance Network Association (FIFNA) launched at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo on 14 May with the support of the Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Program for South and Southeast Asia (RFLP).

The formation of FIFNA also becomes the first such network created in Sri Lanka for small-scale fisher communities.

FIFNA brings together 30 small-scale fisher organisations in the Negombo, Chilaw and Puttalam fisheries districts that are providing micro-finance services such as savings schemes and small loans to their members.

Forming a network of these communities will help the fisheries organisations develop further and provide greater economies of scale for their operations. FIFNA will also facilitate better access to credit from larger lenders as well as other micro-finance services such as micro insurance for its members. In addition, the association will act as the fishers’ representative to the micro-finance industry. Taking part in the launch of the network were a number of Government and Non-Government institutions including the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DFAR), the Gampaha District Secretariat, the Sri Lanka Savings Bank, Stromme Foundation, Planet Guarantee, Janashakthi Insurance and chairpersons of the 30 fisheries co-operative societies and rural fishers organisations.

“At the moment, there are no tailor made loan facilities available for fishers at the local financial institutions lending for industrial purposes. Under the new scheme being facilitated, fishers who belong to fisher co-operative societies and rural fisher organisations will also receive the opportunity to link up with these institutions and bargain to get flexible and much more suitable loan facilities for the industry of fishing within the community. What is essential in this regard is the ability to express these fishing organisations as able and stronger set-ups that could pay back the loans they would obtain from these financial institutions. Therefore, we are also in the process of capacity building in these fisher organisations to empower them and make them viable and stronger in documentary work like book keeping and other related financial matters, so that they can prove they are standing on a stable income,” Communications and Database Assistant Manoja Liyanaarachchi of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN – Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Program  (RFLP) for South and Southeast Asia, in Sri Lanka said.

“Our initial objective of the program is empowering these communities and organisations with related training, extending awareness and getting their intervention in policy making and implementation of such policies in the industry. At present these fisher organisations are also in a process of providing loan facilities for their members. Here, we have to identify such organisations as the retail market in the lending sector. So in the long run, and in reply to many a request raised at the launch of FIFNA, the program will effectively consider better negotiations between the wholesale market and the retail market in  the lending sector,” Micro Finance Specialist Fextus Dayananda for RFLP of FAO said.

Fisheries organisations who participated in the launch of Fish Finance Network Association were also granted the founder membership of FIFNA. “Other organisations who have an interest in the process can also apply for membership through application and upon a minor initial application fee,” Dayananda said. Government and Non-Government Institutions involved in micro-finance and the fisheries sector will act as an advisory committee to help strengthen and guide the network.

FIFNA was launched with the support of the Spanish-funded Regional Fisheries Livelihood Program (RFLP) which is implemented in Sri Lanka by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (MFAR). To address the wider issues raised in the fisheries sector in a broader scale, and also to resolve most of the difficulties faced and experienced by the fisher communities throughout the region, Regional Fisheries Livelihood Program (RFLP) for South and Southeast Asia was initiated and launched with the participation of six countries including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Timore-Leste and Vietnam. The RFLP regional project that was initiated in the region on 1 September 2009 will operate for four years and is scheduled to be completed on 13 August 2013. RFLP is funded by the Kingdom of Spain that has extended a donor contribution of US$ 19,549,000 in this regard. The inception of the Sri Lankan component of the RFLP took place on 23 February 2010 upon a budget of US$ 2,422,477.

RFLP National Project Manager Dr. Champa Amarasiri expressing views at the launch of FIFNA stated that facilitating access to micro-finance was vital to enhance the livelihoods of small-scale fishers. “Since 2010, RFLP has enhanced the capacity of 30 small-scale fisher organisations by building their accounting as well as financial and business management skills. The development of FIFNA represents the logical next step in this process and will give the organisations a bigger voice and a larger presence,” she said.