Fisheries Policy and Strategy Analyst

FAO Bangladesh assists the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (GoB) to formulate policies, programmes and projects to address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and utilize environmental and natural resources in a sustainable way. It contributes to the development of FAO’s field programme projects in the country and implements them in the sectors of food security, agriculture and rural development.

The Department of Fisheries (DoF) and the FAO Bangladesh is going to implement a Global Environmental Facility’s (GEFs) least developed countries fund (LDCF) project entitled, Community-based Climate Resilient Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Bangladesh (GCP/BGD/055/LDF). The Project will attempt to remove key barriers to effective adaptation to climate change in the fishery and aquaculture sector by integrating climate resilience in its policy reform and enhance resiliency of the fishery sector through capacity development of the fishery officials and the communities depending on fisheries.

The poor and smallholders in the project areas will benefit from project interventions both socially and financially, including capacity development to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and variability. The coastal and inland aquatic ecosystems of this project (covering an area of about 4,790 km2) will be under climate resilient plans and management practices. The long-term sustainability of the project will be promoted by adoption of strategy that promotes up scaling and replication of climate resilient adaptations across Bangladesh, and capacity strengthening of DoFs, partner organizations and local communities on climate change implications and resilient adaptation options.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall managerial, administrative leadership of the FAO Representative in Bangladesh and Budget Holder of the project, technical supervision of LTO and direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), National Operations Officer, coordination of the PMU, FAO-MoFL-DoF, the NPC the PD and close collaboration with the Government counterpart, the incumbent will be the part of a multidisciplinary team and be responsible for developing a package of modifications in policies and standards for Fisheries and Aquaculture to incorporate climate change resilience considerations. This assignment will provide inputs and guidance to all outputs and outcomes under the Component 1.2. for overall delivery of Components 1, 2 and 3 of the Project.

The Project will address contradictions and gaps in the policy framework with the view to harmonize aquaculture and fisheries related issues, and enhance resilience of the sub-sector through national capacity development and incorporation of adaptation priorities to cope with climate change. It will strengthen awareness and knowledge of local fishers and fish farmer’s communities, and enhance local adaptive capacity through transfer and adoption of appropriate site-specific climate resilient fisheries and aquaculture intervention technologies and approaches, which will be underpinned by effective knowledge management (e.g. use of ICT-based climate and disaster information services) ensuring wider dissemination of best practices and lessons learned.

• Review and recommend practical application/ enforcement of existing conventions, agreements, laws, policies, acts, regulations relating to fisheries and biodiversity conservation and their enforcement and review the present DoFs institutional arrangements from central to grassroots level in terms of mandates, roles, strengths and weaknesses to recommend any needed changes to ensure efficient fisheries management.
• Examine and identify the means of improving legal and policy issues with a view to upgrade and strengthen the fisheries management and biodiversity conservation. Develop institutional framework that is socially acceptable for eco-friendly fisheries conservation-management.
• Review legislations, regulations, acts, policies and strategies pertaining to fisheries and aquaculture and correlate them with the related sub-sectoral other policy documents and highlight possible review, update and amendments needed to fit in climate change adaptation and mitigation options.
• Recommend possible revision of national fishery sector policy and amendments to address issues and ways of monitoring, response measures, minimizing impacts and include mitigation options from climate change hazards and subsequent adaptation strategies, and disaster risk reduction, institutional strengthening and coordination, and should conform and be harmonized with other related national policies of environment, national water plan, pollution, land use, Gender equity, Tourism, Shipping, Port authority, Maritime authority, etc. and Regional and Global policies, Protocols, Plan of Actions.
• Update national fisheries and aquaculture strategies to meet the future climatic and anthropogenic challenges.
• Revised policy should reflect ways of possible replacement of Top-down planning and encourage community-based (CB) Bottom-up planning with formalized, legally binding management plans which would establish pre-determined rules for responses to stock status, and implementation is monitored by groups of CB stakeholder where government advises, assists and regulates; C-B stakes would develop acceptable management arrangements which they will enforce themselves.
• Policy should highlight and emphasize implementation following CCRF, MCS, IUU fishing, VTMS, EAF, ICZM, CMPAs, MRs, ECAs, ESAs, Sanctuaries, seasonal & gear regulation, mesh regulation, open & ban season.
• Policy should show ways of providing one-stop service for licensing and fitness certification from a single point; spell out coordination protocol with Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Coast Guard for safeguarding coastal/ marine fisheries and with the Forest Department for managing the Sundarbans fisheries.
• Given the context of 2 times hilsa production from the marine than inland, and the threats of climate change ahead, the policy should address guidelines for gradual implementation of HFMAP (conservation of gravid hilsa during spawning, food safety net coverage during hilsa fishing ban period, net and mesh regulation, etc.) in the coastal/marine sector.
• Policy should address the importance and conservation of mother shrimp grounds; shrimp hatcheries should be earmarked to use justifiable nos. of shrimp-mothers (restrict indiscriminate use) as per national yearly PL demand and their PL production capacity.
• Policy would recommend declaration of a complete ‘no-fishing zone’ or ‘no-take’ zone (somewhat similar measures like other Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem countries) in the area of 0-5 km from the beach (in addition to CMPAs and MRs) to protect the nursing and feeding grounds of all marine resources; no fishing of any sort, even with cast nets, beach seines, drag/push nets, current nets, mosquito nets etc. would be allowed.
• Facilitate communications and advocacy with Ministry officials; help establish the inter-sectoral dialogue on climate change adaptation in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
• Prepare and submit an End of Assignment Report (EoA).
• Carry out other activities as instructed by the PMTSU /or the FAOR.

• Have a post-graduate degree, preferably PhD. or equivalent in Fisheries and/or Natural Resources Management/ Environmental Law/ Institutional Policy or any closely related discipline from any recognized university or institution.
• At least 15 (fifteen) years of experience in the Bangladesh fisheries sector with wide sectoral ideas on fisheries, aquaculture, environment, agriculture policies and strategies and management, natural resource governance programming and planning;
• Have a track record of publications which reflects compiling, reasoning and writing skills;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and well computer literate.
• National of Bangladesh

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Working experience in relevant field with United Nations or similar including experience in dealing with Government agencies as well as the non-governmental sector;
• Proven experience in environmental law, institutional/legal approaches with ecology and biodiversity issues;
• Proven track record of experience supporting the preparation of laws and regulations related to fisheries and aquaculture;
• Clear idea pertaining to Fisheries, Environment, Agriculture, Water/ Land, Forest/ Wildlife, Shipping/ Maritime, Energy, Tourism, Disaster Management, etc. related policies, strategies, acts and legal issues, international/ regional conventions, plan of actions and strategies;
• Good analytical skills; resourceful with initiative, maturity of judgment.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate, including advocating to GOs and NGOs;
• Adaptable to multicultural and multidisciplinary team of experts and willing to undertake intensive field works in the coastal/wetland areas of Bangladesh.
• Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines; coordinate and monitor effectively while organizing occasional project events.