The Multinational Program for Improving Fisheries Governance and Blue Economy Trade Corridors in Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region (PROFISHBLUE project) is a four-year initiative of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in response to the African Development Bank (AfDB) 2021 Call for Proposals under the African Development Fund (ADF) 15 Regional Operations financing window (Regional Public Goods envelop). This after the realisation that t he region has a huge resource base both inland and marine (Indian and Atlantic) systems for capture fisheries and aquaculture. However, more than 95% of fish production comes from a diversified capture fisheries sub-sector estimated at 3.7 million tons annually which is not enough to satisfy the 380 million people in the region and contributing only 3% to the total global fish production .
The overall objective of the project is to promote sustainable management and use of fisheries resources within the blue growth context in the SADC region to improve food security, reduce poverty levels through employment opportunities, facilitate intra-regional trade, and enhance adaptive capacity of fish value chains and communities against climate change and other external shocks. T he project is improving management of shared fisheries resources , increasing productivity and value addition benefits and market access , strengthening capacity for small medium enterprises (SMEs) and cooperatives towards intra-regional fish trade and enhance knowledge, regional partnerships, and decision support for resilience. Through the establishment of the business hubs, incubation programmes, Business-Readiness Pitches, partnerships and building sustainability mechanisms in the SMEs targeting women and youths, the project is unlocking the investment options within the region for the development of the fisheries and aquaculture in the region. By the end of the project, it is expected that the project will contribute 250,000 direct and indirect jobs within the fish value chains in the region. The interventions are being concentrated in Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania (URT), Zambia and Zimbabwe.