Against this backdrop the FAO/MFA (Norway) initiative, which is to be undertaken in 2003, may be seen as a modest attempt to examine whether the international trade in fishery products can contribute directly and indirectly to food security in the developing countries.
The general objective of the project, as contained in the Terms of Reference document that was agreed upon by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway can be summed up in the following manner: The general objective of the study will be to analyse the positive and/or negative impact of international fish trade on food security, including food fish availability and accessibility, employment, distribution of benefits, hard currency earnings and the impact on the resources and the aquatic environment. The various impacts of the international trade in fishery products should also be analysed with reference to how men and women may be affected differently.
To achieve this objective, the strategy proposed has been to examine the issue both from a global-macro perspective and simultaneously from a local-micro perspective. The latter is to be achieved by undertaking case studies in several countries that will assess the impact of fish trade - export and import - by considering five “categories” as the subject of analysis.