Report on the activities of the UNU-FTP in 2004

 

Tumi Tómasson, programme director

 

Executive summary                                                                                     9 November 2004

 

Preparations for the establishment of the UNU-FTP started in the mid-1990’s which led to an agreement between the UNU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iceland and the Marine Research Institute in mid-1997.  The first six fellows arrived in August 1998. The initial agreement with UNU was for a five-year period and was subsequently renewed for further six years.  The number of fellows has increased gradually and is now around 20.

 

The programme is run from August to February each year and consists of two distinct parts.  In the five to six-week common introductory course the fellows gain an overview of the fisheries sector which enables them to put the fisheries in their home countries into a regional and international perspective and to gain an appreciation for its development potential.  The rest of the programme is devoted to specialist training, where the fellows are split into smaller groups according to their areas of expertise.  This part consists of  5-6 weeks of formal course work and 14 weeks of  project work and, where appropriate, on-the-job training. 

 

Emphasis is put on the practical application of knowledge for assessment, development and research. The programme takes place in the working environment of the Marine Research Institute (MRI) and the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories, the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri in northern Iceland. During the first six years of the programme, specialist courses in six different fields of study have been offered.  So far, 84 fellows from 20 countries have completed the programme, including 27 women.  Of these, almost half come from Africa (48%), about one-third from Asia (31%) and, 14% from Central and South America and 7% from Eastern Europe. This year 19 fellows started their training, including 9 women.

 

All fellows are selected after a personal interview and in consultations with the directors of their organisations.  The main criteria used have been discussed in some detail in earlier annual reports.  The main objective of the UNU-FTP is to assist in institutional capacity building in key organisations and institutions in the fisheries sectors in cooperating countries.  It is our aim to invite over time a group of professionals from each partner and during visits we try to select potential candidates for the next 2-4 years.

 

Early in the year the director visited South Africa and Namibia, and recently he visited Sri Lanka.  During the visits he made sure to see all former fellows and discuss their work.  Of the six fellows who have come from Sri Lanka, four have subsequently completed their M.Sc. degrees and one of those has now embarked upon a Ph.D.  In some cases they have built on the projects they completed in Iceland, and all agree that the research training they received in Iceland has provided an important foundation for their further studies.  The deputy director visited Murmansk in Russia, but we have for the past two years had two candidates from their main marine research institute (PINRO).  Most candidates for the intake in 2005 have now been identified and invitations to apply will be sent out later this year when the budget for 2005 has been approved.  .   

 

Each year the UNU-FTP invites one or two visiting lecturers of international repute to give a series of lectures.  Usually these are held in December and/or January.  Apart from giving lectures, visiting lectures also engage in discussion sessions and participate in seminars where fellows present projects or assignments.  In January Professor Emeritus Hans Henrik Huss from Denmark gave a series of lectures on food safety.  Prof. Huss is a leading world authority on the subject and has worked all over the world often in cooperation with DANIDA and FAO.  His lectures were based on a book on quality and safety in fish processing, published by FAO and DANIDA earlier this year.      

In December this year our visiting lecturer will be Dr. Grimur Valdimarsson, director of the Fishery Industries Division (FIID) of the FAO Fisheries Department.  He will give a series of lectures on ecosystem based fisheries management and recent developments in international fish trade. 

 

The total budget of the programme in 2004 is estimated at USD 940 000.  Of this USD 753 000 are provided from the state budget as part of the Icelandic contribution to multilateral development cooperation.  The UNU also supports the programme with a direct monetary contribution of USD 100 000.  Other organisations, mainly ICEIDA, contribute the remaining USD 87 000. 

 

The development of short courses in fish processing and quality management in Vietnam continued this year.  Experts and teaching staff from the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories visited Vietnam once during the year where they were working with lecturers and researchers from two Vietnamese universities and a government institution.  This includes two former UNU-FTP fellows.  A third member of the Vietnamese team started his training with the UNU-FTP this year.  Seven of the team visited Iceland for 10 days in November to attend lectures, visit fish processing plants and to participate in a workshop on a revision of the training materials.  A third course will be held in Vietnam in March 2005.  After the course a final revision will take place with Icelandic assistance and that will mark the end of the development phase of this project. 

 

An external evaluation of the UNU-FTP has now been completed by the Iceland University of Education Research Centre.  The evaluation was carried out in cooperation with the staff of the programme.  The programme gets a favourable review, but there are also several suggestions for improvement, many of which have been implemented for this year’s session.  A summary of the findings are presented as an appendix to the full annual report.    

 

There is an increased interest in Iceland and world-wide in development cooperation in fisheries.   The Icelandic government has decided to increase its contribution to development cooperation substantially over the next few years, including its contribution to the UNU-FTP.  This will give increased scope to diversify activities and to bring more of the work to partners in developing countries, where there will be increased opportunities for cooperation with other organisations. 

 

The main emphasis of the UNU-FTP during the first six years has been to build up a six month training programme in Iceland and to establish good working relationships with key institutions in cooperating countries.  A good foundation is now in place.  There are many opportunities to diversify the operations and further growth of the programme is mostly envisaged to be in developing countries with the active participation of former fellows.  Such work should at the same time strengthen further the backbone of the programme which will remain the six month postgraduate training in Iceland.

Introduction

 

Preparations for the establishment of the UNU-FTP started in the mid-1990’s which led to an agreement between the UNU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iceland and the Marine Research Institute in mid-1997.  The first six fellows arrived in August 1998. The initial agreement with UNU was for a five-year period and was subsequently extended for further six years.  The number of fellows has increased gradually and is now around 20.

 

The programme is run from August to February each year and consists of two distinct parts.  In the six-week common introductory course the fellows gain an overview of the fisheries sector which enables them to put the fisheries in their home countries into a regional and international perspective and to gain an appreciation for its development potential.  The rest of the programme is devoted to specialist training, where the fellows are split into smaller groups according to their areas of expertise.  This part consists of  5-6 weeks of formal course work and 14 weeks of  project work and, where appropriate, on-the-job training.  Care is taken to select projects that will be of direct relevance to the home situation of the fellows, and senior staff in their institutions often take an active part in the process of selecting relevant topics for the projects.  In many cases the projects are based on data which the fellows have been sent or have brought with them.  Sometimes the projects are a part of larger research and development projects carried out at one of the institutions hosting the UNU-FTP, and this work then finds its way into progress reports, technical reports, conference proceedings or even international journals.  Most projects can be accessed on the homepage of the programme http://www.unuftp.is/.

 

Emphasis is put on the practical application of knowledge for assessment, development and research. The programme takes place in the working environment of the Marine Research Institute (MRI) and the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories, the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri in northern Iceland. During the first six years of the programme, specialist courses in six different fields of study have been offered.  Usually only 1-2 fellows take part the first time specialist training is offered in a particular field. 

 

So far, 84 fellows from 20 countries have completed the programme, including 27 women.  Almost half come from Africa (48%), about one-third from Asia (31%) and, 14% from Central and South America and 7% from Eastern Europe. A detailed breakdown according to countries and areas of specialisation is given in Table 1.  This year 19 fellows started their training, including 9 women.

 

There are three permanent members of staff working on the programme, the director and deputy director in full time positions, and a programme officer in a 50% position.  The programme officer resumed her duties earlier this year after taking a maternity leave.  

 

A seven-member board governs the programme, with representatives from the cooperating institutions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the fisheries sector in Iceland and the UNU.  The board meets 4-5 times per year.  In addition, the director of the programme is assisted by a studies committee composed of experts in the different fields offered as specialisations by the programme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 1.  Fellows of the UNU/FTP in 1998-2003.

 

Area of specialisation

Country

Quality Management

Policy &  Planning

Resource Assessment

Fishing Technology

Company Management

Environmental  Studies

Total

Argentine

 

1

 

 

 

 

1

Cape Verde

 

 

1

1

2

 

4

China

3

2

 

 

 

1

6

Cuba

3

 

2

 

1

1

7

Estonia

1

2

1

 

 

 

4

Iran

1

1

1

 

 

1

4

Kenya

1

 

1

 

 

2

4

Malawi

 

1

 

2

 

 

3

Malaysia

1

 

 

1

1

 

3

Mauritius

1

 

 

 

 

 

1

Mexico

1

 

 

2

 

1

4

Mozambique

4

1

 

1

1

 

7

Namibia

1

2

 

1

 

 

4

Russia

 

 

1

 

 

1

2

South Africa

 

2

 

 

 

 

2

Sri Lanka

4

1

 

1

 

 

6

Tanzania

 

1

 

 

 

 

1

The Gambia

1

 

3

 

1

 

5

Uganda

5

2

1

 

1

 

9

Vietnam

2

1

2

1

1

 

7

Total

29

17

13

10

8

7

84

 

 

 

Main activities in 2004

 

All twenty-two fellows who entered the main programme in August 2003 completed their studies successfully and graduated in February this year. Their projects will be published on the web site of the programme.  There were four main lines of specialisation in 2003/2004, Quality Management of Fish Handling and Processing, Fisheries Policy and Planning, Fishing Technology and Environmental Studies.  All specialisations were favourably reviewed by the fellows, but there is always room for improvement.  This year specialisations were again offered in Quality Management of Fish Handling and Processing, and in Fisheries Policy and Planning.  In addition specialisations are run in Marine and Inland Waters, Resource Assessment and Monitoring, and in Management of Fisheries Companies and Marketing.

 

The seventh session of the UNU-FTP is now well underway. The current group of fellows arrived in Reykjavík during the last days of August and first days of September.  This year we continued to develop the introductory course along the lines started last year.  The fellows have to give a series of presentations, both on aspects of fisheries in their home countries, but they are also required to participate in group work in several cases.  This has brought into sharper focus how a comparative approach can be used to evaluate the development potential of fisheries in different countries and gives the fellows a good opportunity to contribute to the course, and it has also contributed to the fellows getting to know each other better earlier on in the programme. 

 

At the time of writing the fellows are finishing the course part of their specialist training and have started preparing their project proposals.  To focus the training and to make the fellows more responsible for their own training, they set themselves personal goals shortly after arriving in Iceland.  These goals are then discussed and revised, culminating in a selection of a project and the writing of a project proposal.  The goal is that the training in Iceland and the project the fellows undertake should have a direct relevance for the work they do at home and address important issues the fellows are faced with in their work. 

 

Selection of fellows

All fellows are selected after a personal interview and in consultations with the directors of their organisations.  The main criteria used have been discussed in some detail in earlier annual reports.  The main objective of the UNU-FTP is to assist in institutional capacity building in key organisations and institutions in the fisheries sectors in cooperating countries.  All fellows must therefore have the full support of their superiors, and final selection is always done in consultations with senior staff of the institutions.  It is our aim to invite over time a group of professionals from each partner and during visits we try to select potential candidates for the next 2-4 years.

 

Early in the year the director visited South Africa and Namibia, and recently he visited Sri Lanka.  During the visits he made sure to see all former fellows and discuss their work.  Of the six fellows who have come from Sri Lanka, four have subsequently completed their M.Sc. degrees and one of those has now embarked upon a Ph.D.  In some cases they have built on the projects they completed in Iceland, and all agree that the research training they received in Iceland has provided an important foundation for their further studies.  The deputy director visited Murmansk in Russia, but we have for the past two years had two candidates from their main marine research institute (PINRO).  He also visited Estonia to explore further cooperation through a special development fund that has been set up by Norway and Iceland for the countries that joined the EU earlier this year.  This fund is part of an agreement Norway and Iceland have made with the EU.

 

Most candidates for the intake in 2005 have now been identified and invitations to apply will be sent out later this year once the budget for 2005 has been approved.  We expect to hold a couple of places open for candidates from countries we plan to visit early next year.  

 

Guests received

Interest in the programme remains strong and several delegations and individuals visit the programme each year.  This year our visitors have included the ambassadors for Uganda, Angola and Iran.  There has long been an interest to include Angola in the programme and hopefully this will be possible next year.   A strong interest has also been expressed by authorities in India and Bangladesh to be included in our programme. 

 

Visiting lecturers

Each year the UNU-FTP invites one or two visiting lecturers of international repute to give a series of lectures.  Usually these are held in December and/or January.  Apart from giving lectures, visiting lectures also engage in discussion sessions and participate in seminars where fellows present projects or assignments.  In January Professor Emeritus Hans Henrik Huss from Denmark gave a series of lectures on food safety.  Prof. Huss is a leading world authority on the subject and has worked all over the world often in cooperation with DANIDA and FAO.  His lectures were based on a book on quality and safety in fish processing, published by FAO and DANIDA earlier this year.     

 

In December our visiting lecturer will be Dr. Grimur Valdimarsson, director of the Fishery Industries Division (FIID) of the FAO Fisheries Department.  He will give a series of lectures on ecosystem based fisheries management and recent developments in international fish trade. 

 

Finances

The total budget of the programme in 2004 is estimated at USD 940 000.  Of this USD 753 000 are provided from the state budget as part of the Icelandic contribution to multilateral development cooperation.  The UNU also supports the programme with a direct monetary contribution of USD 100 000.  Other organisations, mainly ICEIDA, contribute the remaining USD 87 000. 

 

Development of short courses

The development of short courses in fish processing and quality management in Vietnam continued this year.  Experts and teaching staff from the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories visited Vietnam once during the year where they worked with lecturers and researchers from two Vietnamese universities and a government institution.  This includes two former UNU-FTP fellows.  A third member of the Vietnamese team started his training with the UNU-FTP this year.  Seven of the team visited Iceland for 10 days in November to attend lectures, visit fish processing plants and to participate in a workshop on the training materials.  The short course will be run for the third time in Vietnam in March 2005.  After that a final revision will take place with Icelandic assistance and that will mark the end of the development phase of this project.  The idea is that the course can subsequently be modified and adapted to other countries.  This would be done in cooperation between the Icelandic experts and professionals in cooperating countries, which should, when possible, include former UNU-fellows.

 

Preparations to develop a short course in management of fisheries companies are under way.  The possibility to develop a course in the construction, maintenance and use of fisheries data-bases is being looked into. 

 

External evaluation of the UNU-FTP

At the end of last year a contract was signed with the Iceland University of Education Research Centre to undertake a formal evaluation of the UNU-FTP.  This evaluation has now been completed.  The evaluation was carried out in cooperation with the staff of the programme.  The programme gets a favourable review, but there are also several suggestions for improvement, many of which have been implemented for this year’s session.  A summary of the findings are presented as appendix to this report. 

 

Other activities

Staff of the UNU-FTP are frequently consulted by Icelandic authorities and others and participate in a variety of professional activities.  The director worked in a ministerial committee on the use of biological indicators in fisheries management.  The committee was appointed in 2003 and completed its work and handed in a final report earlier this year.  In March he undertook an appraisal of a proposed regional integrated fisheries project on Lake Tanganyika for the Nordic Development Fund, in cooperation with the African Development Bank.  He also undertook an evaluation for ICEIDA of a project on maritime training in Namibia.  Finally he acted as a consultant for ICEIDA to evaluate the possibilities for development cooperation with Sri Lanka in the fisheries sector in late October.

 

The World Bank launched a fisheries initiative by holding a global fisheries workshop in early June.  The director of the UNU-FTP was part of a delegation from Iceland.  The WB is intending to commit USD 230 m over the next five years to this initiative which will have a focus on Africa, and is trying to build a partnership with key bilateral donors, including Iceland.   The UNU-FTP has always sought to contribute to capacity development in countries where fisheries are specially targeted for development.  The new WB initiative may thus provide a good opportunity for the UNU-FTP to become a partner in targeted country programmes.

 

There is a great interest in development cooperation in Iceland.  The Icelandic government has decided to increase its contribution to development cooperation substantially over the next few years, including its contribution to the UNU-FTP.  This will give increased scope to diversify activities and to bring more of the work to partners in developing countries.  Most of the increase will go to ICEIDA and there is a growing interest within the organisation to increase work in the fisheries sector.  In November, ICEIDA and the UNU-FTP are jointly organising a one-day workshop to discuss various options in fisheries development cooperation.  It has always been a policy of the UNU-FTP to complement the input of ICEIDA and other development agencies, and ICEIDA has in the past supported the UNU-FTP by financing participation of fellows from their partners. 

 

Conclusion

The main emphasis of the UNU-FTP during the first six years has been to build up a six month training programme in Iceland and to establish good working relationships with key institutions in cooperating countries.  A good foundation is now in place.  There are many opportunities to diversify the operations and further growth of the programme is mostly envisaged to be in developing countries with the active participation of former fellows.  Such work should at the same time strengthen further the backbone of the programme which will remain the six month postgraduate training in Iceland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix 1.

 

External Evaluation of the
United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme

Preliminary summary

Hróbjartur Árnason: Reykjavík, September 2004

 

During the last academic year an external evaluation on the UNU Fisheries Training Programme was carried out.  The writing of the report is in its final stages.  This is a summary of the findings.

 

Goals and scope

The evaluation focuses on providing relevant information for decision-makers as well as being a learning process for the managers and staff at the FTP.

The goals of the evaluation (as laid out in the Terms-of-Reference) are to:

*       determine whether the programme meets its goals

*       check whether the teaching methods are as good as they could be

*       find out whether there are any blind spots where the programme needs to be changed

*       find out what impact the program has when the fellows return home

The evaluation was carried out during the programme 2003-4. Documented findings and information on previous year’s experiences given in interviews was also included as data.  The evaluation was also planned and carried out as a learning process for the directors during which they could review their practice and learn new views and methods in accordance with established practice in theory and practice of adult- and higher education.

 

Findings

Fellows reactions

It is quite evident from our findings that participants are generally very happy with their stay in Iceland.  They find the service they receive in most cases superior and most importantly; most fellows state that they have learned very much they can use in their jobs when they return home.

Organisation

Our analysis of the organisation shows that practical aspects of the course are in very good shape: From the first day the fellows experience sound organisation and find that they are led through the beginning phases of the course in security and with competence.  During the evaluation process some aspects supporting the group to quickly become a functioning learning community were discussed, and the directors restructured some activities in concert with established practice in adult education.  The organisation of learning modules has been under constant development, the Introductory Course getting shorter, increasing the emphasis on the Specialization Course and the final project.  We suggested adding more elements of group work in order to give the fellows more opportunities to reflect on their learning and to forge closer relations with other fellows.

Working conditions and access to information is exemplary.  Access to specialists is also very good due to the fact that they work inside the MRI and next door to IFL.  However, some fellows might need more support to overcome social barriers and to approach the Icelandic specialists.

Teaching and learning

The learning process at the UNU FTP is mainly structured with lectures, site visits and individual projects, culminating with a final project supervised by specialists in the field.  Our analysis of student reactions, interviews with the fellows, the lecturers and the directors indicate that it would be of value to decrease the emphasis on delivery of information to the benefit of group activities and self study activities.  This recommendation is in concert with UNU stipulations that the UNU programmes should increase the fellows’ capacity to continue learning on their own after returning to their home countries, and to cooperate with fellow specialists around the world.  The fellows’ reaction to the lectures is usually very positive but it is quite evident that there is a need for more discussion and reflection.  In cases where the cooperation between lecturers and the fellows do not work out, the directors have become very sensitive to indications from the fellows when individual lecturers do not manage to connect with them in an educating way.  Furthermore our interviews with some of the lecturers, indicate that also they have benefited from their participation in the programme.  Many have built up specialised knowledge and skills educating this kind of student group while others have used the opportunity to consider their line of study from fresh viewpoints. 

Impact

It is difficult to estimate the impact the programme has on the partner organisations, from a distance.  To be able to give a reasonable judgement on the programmes’ impact in participating countries and institutions one would need in depth interviews with players in situ, both before the start of the programme and after some years of operation.  However reactions from partner countries reported in the managers’ travel reports and telephone interviews with some participating superiors, together with answers in our online survey indicate a very positive impact on participating institutions.  The fellows’ superiors we talked to were very happy with the impact the programme had on their subordinates’ work.  A considerable number of fellows were consequently promoted, or changed their situation to tackle greater responsibilities, others are found to be better at their jobs.  More than half the fellows who answered our online survey indicated that they continued either formal or informal studies.  Other sources indicate that at least fourteen of 64 former fellows have gone on to further degree studies in their fields.   The most evident and reliable indicator of the programmes’ impact is perhaps the partner institutes’ interest in continuing cooperation.  This is evident in all the countries where the programme has been offered for several years.  Another similar indicator is growing interest the managers observe from other countries.

Some aspects stipulated by the UNU Charter, however, need to be addressed.  UNU goals of increasing cooperation between specialists in similar situations or neighbouring countries have been addressed by inviting candidates from countries which lie adjacent to each other to the programme.  This could however be furthered by incorporating methods used in online communities into the programme in order to teach the fellows to use such learning tools, and to build up online support for Alumni. Local conferences sponsored by the FTP might also be considered.  Support for self-study should also be addressed specially.  Strategies for developing the fellows’ study skills could be tackled more consequently for example with the implication of student portfolios.  Were this to be done it would probably influence the way some lectures teach, or have an impact on the way the office supports the fellows during the programme.

The FTP as Development Assistance

Development assistance in this form has a logic of its own.  Some argue that money spent in this way does not benefit a developing country in the same way it would if it were spent in the receiving country.  One can however counter, that the education, a programme like this offers, is far superior to that which could be offered in the receiving countries.  Many of our informants, both fellows and lecturers, found that the strength of the UNU-FTP was its international character.  It is definitely one of the aims of the UNU to support cooperation and understanding.  A programme such as this can definitely be seen as a good method to further such aims.  The FTP gathers professionals from a wide range of countries together, widening their perspective and giving them a global perspective.  It can also be argued that no other place has the capacity to offer such a wide range of top notch scientists and professionals together with the most modern facilities to enable a student to experience so many facets of the field in such a short time.  Courses could be exported to a developing country, but that would not offer the same educational benefits as studying theory and practice in the midst of a thriving and vigorous industry. 

 

Conclusion

This evaluation finds the UNU-FTP to be a very good programme. Our findings are that the programme reaches most of its goals to an acceptable measure.  The fellows return to their homes with useful knowledge, a broader understanding of their field of work and enthusiasm to continue.  Both the fact that they are able to deepen their knowledge in a narrow field closely associated with their own interests and that they are immerged into a work morality, probably particular to Iceland, seems to contribute to a greater efficiency and enthusiasm at work after their return. 

There were some aspects, both in the area of organisation and teaching where ideals, methods and common practice in the field of adult education would improve parts of the programme.  These concern especially the beginning of the programme, group work, individual work assignments and incorporation of web-based methods during the programme.  These have been discussed with the managers and many are, as far as we know, currently being incorporated into the programme with a new cohort which arrived in the beginning of September 2004.