The Fisheries Commission, led by Deputy Executive Director (Technical) Prof. Berchie Asiedu, has initiated a high-level strategic alignment with the CERATH Development Organization (CDO) to formalize and modernize the role of women in Ghana’s maritime value chain.
Meeting at the National Premix Secretariat, the Commission reviewed CDO’s ambitious new seven-year strategic framework (2026 – 2032). This partnership signaled a move beyond “traditional support programs,” focusing instead on institutionalizing women’s leadership and implementing rigorous certification standards across the post-harvest sector.
“The initiative focuses on: Scaling up the Safe Fish Certification and Licensing Scheme (SFCLS), enhancing climate resilience for post-harvest actors, improving monitoring and feedback systems, and advancing women’s leadership and participation in fisheries governance”
Fisheries Commission
For the Fisheries Commission, this collaboration is a necessity. As the state seeks to modernize the blue economy, the predominantly female workforce in fish processing and trading remains the backbone of the industry but often operates outside formal regulatory and financial structures.
Through aligning with CDO’s framework, Prof. Berchie Asiedu and his technical team hope to position women not just as laborers, but as certified stakeholders in a modern, sustainable, and job-creating sector.
Conversations explored the strategy of scaling the Safe Fish Certification and Licensing Scheme (SFCLS) to address the persistent friction in Ghana’s domestic and regional fish trade, which is a lack of standardized safety and quality metrics. For Prof. Asiedu, the SFCLS is a tool for market transformation.
He believes that certifying female processors will strengthen the supply chain and guarantee that processed fish meets the sanitary and phytosanitary standards required for high-value domestic markets and international exports.
The scaling of the SFCLS was also presented as a shift toward a premium post-harvest economy, underpinned by the fact that currently, many female processors operate in informal environments that lack the technical oversight needed to reduce post-harvest losses.
Under this new framework, the Commission and CDO will focus on creating the infrastructure and monitoring systems necessary to make certification a reality for rural and urban processors alike. This is a critical step in turning fish processing from a survivalist activity into a formal, certified business.
Protecting the Most Vulnerable
Prof. Berchie Asiedu emphasized that the partnership must address the growing threat of climate instability on post-harvest actors, especially since women in the fisheries sector are disproportionately affected by the depletion of fish stocks and the volatility of traditional processing methods.
The 2026 – 2032 framework explicitly targets climate resilience, aiming to introduce modern processing technologies that are less dependent on dwindling firewood supplies and more resistant to extreme weather events.
The CDO team explained that the “climate resilience” component is more than just environmental protection; it is an economic safeguard, as modernizing processing ovens and storage facilities will help female stakeholders reduce the hidden costs of spoilage and inefficient energy use.
This is expected to allow for a more stable income stream, even as capture fisheries face environmental shifts. The goal is to ensure that the post-harvest sector can survive – and thrive – despite the ecological pressures facing the Gulf of Guinea.
The dialogue emphasized that the industrial stake in the partnership was the move to advance women’s leadership in fisheries governance, to change the trend where women have dominated the market but remained excluded from the boardrooms where quotas, licensing, and management policies are decided.
The Fisheries Commission’s engagement with CDO aims to break this institutional glass ceiling once and for all, bringing women into the decision-making architecture of the sector. The Commission is creating a two-way street for data and policy by strengthening monitoring and feedback systems.
In this, women will no longer be mere recipients of government directives but active participants in a co-management system. This inclusion is essential for the long-term sustainability of the sector as the state gains a much clearer picture of the actual state of Ghana’s fisheries when women, who handle the majority of the catch post-landing, are integrated into governance.
“The Fisheries Commission looks forward to working closely with CDO to deliver inclusive and sustainable outcomes for Ghana’s fisheries sector. Discussions explored areas of alignment, opportunities for partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and next steps for joint action”
Fisheries Commission
The meeting in Accra served as the foundational step toward a formalized Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Fisheries Commission and CDO. This document will serve as the legal and operational roadmap for the next seven years.
Prof. Berchie Asiedu and his divisional heads are focused on ensuring that this partnership is “results-oriented,” with clear KPIs for certification, jobs, and leadership milestones.
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