Eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies is part of the 2030 Agenda. The international community contributes to this by developing international agreements, such as the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. This WTO Agreement is meant to support the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources for sustainable development. The inclusion of small-scale actors, especially in developing and least developed countries, represents a major challenge.

In this session, we will explore different approaches on how to start this huge but necessary transformative task to eliminate harmful subsidies from the sector in a way that leaves no one behind.

An example will be given by the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), which supports governments in publishing information on their fisheries sector. This stimulates public debates and allows stakeholders to meaningfully engage in reforms towards better governance of the sector.

Furthermore, the self-assessment tool for the implementation of the WTO Fisheries Subsidies agreement by IISD assists public officials to examine what to change within their national fisheries policies and identify where assistance might be needed.

Bringing these perspectives together, including the views of small-scale fishers, developing and least developed countries, as well as the newly set-up WTO Fisheries Fund, will set the scene to discuss ways in which a transparent, fair and participatory transformation towards a world free of harmful fisheries subsidies can succeed.