Overview

We deliver science-based services and solutions (knowledge, expertise, methods, tools, technologies) in aquaculture and fisheries management that help solve poverty, hunger and environmental degradation across Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. As an international public institution, we deliver these in the form of “international public goods?that we make freely available to all. Economic analysis has shown that, taken as a whole, every 100 dollars invested in the WorldFish Center yields 134 dollars in benefits to the poor per year.

WorldFish pursues two main thrusts that promise large benefits for the poor across Africa, Asia and the Pacific:

• More productive and resilient small-scale fisheries; and
• Expanding sustainable aquaculture.

These thrusts contribute strongly to the Millennium Development Goals, especially in reducing poverty, hunger and gender inequity; improving the sustainability of natural resource use; enhancing the capacity of the poor to adapt to climate change; and enabling them to better cope with HIV/AIDS.

We take a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach because the problems fisheries and aquaculture face are complex and multi-faceted. There are many linkages and inter-dependencies and many points of entry. Failure to embrace this complexity has led to piecemeal efforts in the past and undue faith in single technological or development approaches - magic bullets. And research alone is not enough - we also catalyze partnerships that give the poor access to credit, inputs, markets, institutions and other essential ingredients for transforming their lives.

For more details on WorldFish's plans in these two areas over the next three years, download our abbreviated Medium-Term Plan 2009-2011. For the most recent update of progress, download our latest Annual Report.