GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR THE SADC REGIONAL FISHERIES MONITORING, CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE COORDINATION CENTRE (MCSCC) 

Following the  approval of the Charter establishing the SADC MCSCC by SADC Council of Ministers in August 2017, in Pretoria, South Africa, the Charter entered into force on 08th April 2023 after reaching the two-thirds majority. With the entry into force of the Charter, the MCSCC was then established as a Regional Organisation by SADC Member States viz. Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia, with Seychelles acceding to the Charter in July 2023. Progress has been made towards operationalising the MCSCC as summarised below: (i) In November 2017, Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture approved the establishment of the Interim Project Management Unit (IPMU) based in Maputo, Mozambique at the Ministry of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries. 

Ministers also appointed the SADC Regional Technical Team (RTT) to guide the work of the IPMU in operationalising the MCSCC. Approved 10 April 2024 (ii) The Government of Mozambique seconded two officials (Coordinator and a Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Expert) to the IPMU since 2019 and on 20 April 2023, the Honourable Minister of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries of the Republic of Mozambique, Honourable Lídia Cardoso handed over keys of the MCSCC Interim Offices to Secretariat. The offices are based at the Ministry of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries (MIMAIP), and are housing the IPMU and the Fishing Vessel Monitoring Centre. (iii) The MCSCC is now functional and is implementing minimum services through the IPMU. 

Recently, Ministers approved the Information portal for the MCSCC (www.sadcmcscc,org), which also hosts secure platforms where IPMU supports Member States to track and monitor movements of fishing vessels of interest (SeaVision platform) and collate information and evidence of illegalities and share with national Fisheries Monitoring Centres to enable inspections or apprehensions (BaseCamp platform). IPMU supported by Secretariat, continues to coordinate capacity building programmes and advisory services through development of policy briefs and engagement in studies on topical issues, and facilitate implementation of projects supporting the MCSCC. 

This work is guided by key policy documents which were approved by the Ministers: the RISDP (2020-2023), SADC Protocol on Fisheries (2001), Charter for the MCSCC (2017), SADC Regional Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Strategy (2021) and the SADC Code for Information and Data Sharing through the MCSCC (2022).