In case you missed it, here’s a recap of our past and upcoming events at WorldFish. Check out our newsletter on it too!
On 20th April, WorldFish’s Alex Tilley unpacked major themes in the field of digital technology and its application in resilient small-scale fisheries. He highlighted key research gaps, development challenges and success stories faced by countries experiencing this digital transformation.
As COVID-19 peaked in mid-April, creating more problems for fish and aquatic food systems, WorldFish and our global counterparts came together for an early look at effective measures in support of governments’ response to food and nutrition needs in Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
The combined impact of COVID-19 and climate change are leaving smallholder farmers and agri-vendors poor and vulnerable. WorldFish’s Ahmed Nasr Allah and Nabil Ahmed Ibrahim discuss the importance of empowering community businesses, allowing them to operate remotely through technological innovation.
May 28th was a special day for WorldFish as we celebrated World Nutrition Day. A Fish Talk session was held to discuss how COVID-19 continues to affect global nutrition around the world, particularly in many developing countries that face severe impacts on production and value supply chains, food security and malnutrition.
June was a significant month for WorldFish. The World Economic Forum and Friends of Ocean Action had organized the Virtual Oceans Dialogues. At the same time, in anticipation of World Ocean’s Day on 8th June, the Too Big To Ignore organization held the Small is Bountiful series of events from 1st to 5th June. Not one to miss out, WorldFish had taken an active role in both major events.
The Nourishing Billions dialogue had featured WorldFish’s Shakuntala Thilsted and focused on perspectives “beyond the ocean,” looking at the importance of food, nutrition and income security through fish and aquatic foods. The Nourishing Billions dialogue had successfully convened and connected global thinkers and business leaders, highlighting the role of the ocean to nourish billions.
Immediately afterwards, the deep-dive session on “Transforming The Agricultural Research and Development Agendas Through Aquatic Foods” hosted exclusively by WorldFish, further brandished our role as a key player in the Dialogues. The focal topic of discussion was the roles of fish and aquatic foods in providing critical food solution to billions of people.
The “Small-scale fisheries as a nexus of SDGs to ensure a future we want" webinar was moderated by WorldFish's Pip Cohen and provided compelling arguments on the key opportunities to work with SSF to progress multiple SDGs amidst three imminent transformations; food system transformation, Blue Economy and climate change.
Pip Cohen also moderated the “Small-Scale Fisheries as a Nexus of SDGs - The Future We Want!” as part of the 24-Hour event special. This session had WorldFish’s Shakuntala Thilsted in the panel of speakers, as they explored the significant role of small-scale fisheries in providing food, income, nutrition and wellbeing services to millions of people.
Over in Bangladesh, WorldFish and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organized a webinar in celebration of World Oceans Day 2020. Speakers at the discussion highlighted the challenges and opportunities of the actions taken by both state and non-state actors in Bangladesh to conserve oceans and marine resources through education, communication and grassroots action.
At the start of June, WorldFish celebrated the launch of Dr. Laurence C. Smith's latest book “The Rivers of Power”, with a Fish Talk featuring WorldFish’s Tana Lala-Pritchard and Sarah Reed. Dr. Laurence shared his experience in capturing stories of fish conservation, climate change resilience and sustainable fisheries practices of communities around the Mekong river basin.
Stay tuned for our upcoming events as well.
For this year’s Agriculture, Nutrition & Health (ANH) Academy Week, WorldFish's Kelvin Shikuku and Kendra Byrd will be presenting on Tuesday, June 30th and Thursday, July 2nd at 21:15 (UTC+8) respectively. They will be working with other global actors at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition and health to foster knowledge exchange, innovation and learning, touching on COVID-19's impacts on their shared work.
In anticipation of COFI34, WorldFish’ Illuminating Hidden Harvest (IHH) Team, FAO and Duke University, will be participating in the “Illuminating Hidden Harvests: The Contributions of Small-Scale Fisheries to Sustainable Development” webinar on Tuesday, 14th July at 19:00 (UTC+8). They will be analyzing SSF’s contributions to the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) at national, regional and global scales.