Small-scale fishers are the backbone of Ghana’s coastal food systems and local economies, yet they face weak tenure security, unregulated incursion at sea, and governance systems that often exclude their voices. Strengthened fisheries governance protects livelihoods, ensures sustainable fishing, and reduces conflict between communities, industry and state actors.
FoN’s approach & activities
Friends of the Nation (FoN) advances an integrated program of governance reform, community empowerment and systems strengthening to protect fishers’ rights and improve fisheries management. Our work bridges grassroots action and national policy by:
- Promoting community-based fisheries management and best-practice responsible fishing standards.
- Securing fish landing sites and tenure rights in line with VGGT (Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure) and the SSF Guidelines to protect community access to coastal resources.
- Combating IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing through awareness campaigns and by building the capacity of enforcement agencies.
- Enhancing Safety at Sea
- Replacing weak oral reporting with documented, verifiable reporting systems for incursions and incidents at sea to accelerate justice processes.
- Enhancing Rights and Voices of Fishers
Key achievements & indicators
- Prosecution of IUU offenders
- Number of landing sites with secured tenure or active tenure negotiations.
- Increase in community-led management zones or locally-managed fisheries.
- Reduction in reported IUU incidents in targeted zones
- Number of documented incident reports submitted via FoN-supported tools.
Partnerships & policy linkages
We work with local fisher associations, District Assemblies, Fisheries Commission, legal partners and international partners to align community demands with national policy, leveraging the VGGT and SSF Guidelines as advocacy anchors.
Call to action
Support our governance work: donate to fund legal protection of landing sites, volunteer to support community paralegal training, or partner with us to pilot tenure models in new communities.