A review of fish-handling training activities in Malaita Province

In Solomon Islands, many fishers, fish vendors and processors live and work in remote locations without access to electricity, roads, clean water or landing-site facilities. Some may also lack the skills, knowledge or capital to invest in new equipment or put their ideas into practice. As a result, fish is often handled in ways that cause spoilage or contamination with dirt or bacteria, which can reduce income earned and make consumers sick or hesitant to eat fish. While there are many factors that contribute to poor fish-handling practices, provision of training to increase knowledge, develop skills and change attitudes is one step that can be taken to improve the quality of fishery products. In some provinces, including Malaita Province, several training workshops on fish handling have been held in the past for both fishers and fish vendors. However, to our knowledge, there has been no evaluation of such workshops to understand their effectiveness in bringing about change

Co-creating nutrition-sensitive development pathways with aquatic foods: Consulting local food systems partners in Baucau and Lautem municipalities, Timor-Leste

On 23 June 2022, WorldFish held a consultation workshop in Baucau Vila to introduce its planned action research program (Box 1) in Baucau and Lautem municipalities to its diverse partners, including national, municipal and local government representatives, community members, and local and international NGOs. This brief provides a summary of the workshop and demonstrates the first steps towards co-developing a municipality-level food systems coalition for sustainable and nutrition-sensitive transformation that includes aquatic foods

Island food systems in transition: Strengthening Indigenous food systems in Solomon Islands

This brief defines a vision for an island food system centered on rural food system actors and Indigenous foods. It provides the foundation for a new partnership program between the Kastom Gaden Association and WorldFish in Solomon Islands. This partnership will work towards implementing the island food systems vision

Nourishing island food systems in Solomon Islands: Operational Plan 2023

The WorldFish program in Solomon Islands is organized around four main research pathways (see figure). The first three are the agreed-upon impact areas of WorldFish, which aligns toward our adopted goal from the Solomon Islands National Fisheries Policy 2019–2029 of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR). The fourth research pathway places a deliberate emphasis on integrated planning and partnerships. Although WorldFish in Solomon Islands has many partners, we particularly integrate our research with MFMR to support national strategies toward its policy goal

National assessment and planning for improved fish handling in Solomon Islands

The report summarizes the discussions and interviews with provincial fisheries officers (PFOs) at the annual PFO conference in Honiara, November 23, 2022.The report also identifies the next steps needed to build a program on fish handling based on input from participants at the Fish Innovation project reflection workshop in Nusatupe, May 16–19, 2023