Show me the way: Inclination towards governance attributes in the artisanal fisheries of Sierra Leone

A decentralised artisanal fisheries resource stewardship framework brings the decision-making process closer to users, obliging the downward transfer of stewardship power sharing and incorporating local stakeholder input in assessing outstanding needs. Local councils were instrumental in implementing this strategy in Sierra Leone and their dissolution in 1972 impacted negatively on local participation. Their reintroduction in 2004 was rushed, and desired outcomes are yet to be realised. The relative importance of stakeholders in the artisanal fisheries of Sierra Leone and that of governance attributes have been evaluated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology under two scenarios (the current stewardship arrangement and a theoretical reformed system). The objective of the study is to elicit stakeholder's opinions on stewardship arrangement in order to evaluate attributes which may aid (or deter) governance thereby creating a baseline against which changes from governance reform can be measured. Results indicate that the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources currently wields disproportionate power over the stewardship of fisheries resources scoring the highest normalised geometric mean of 43% compared to about 20% reported for the University of Sierra Leone. The Ministry of Local Government scored 13.5% but all other stakeholders scored less than 10%. The Ministry of Fisheries saw a drop in its rating to about 24% under a reformed system whilst the Ministry of Local Government increased in stature to 17% as the University of Sierra Leone remained unchanged. Endowment attribute was the most dominant at 72% under the current system, but political and institutional attributes were more important with about 40 and 31% respectively under the reformed scenario (compared to 17% for endowment attribute). A receptive Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources sharing power and responsibility in a reformed system is sought. The communities perceive equity in the political and institutional governance attributes as the means of achieving equity in the endowment and economic attributes as the end. Reforms could only succeed in the spirit of the ministry's quest to effectively implement the fisheries policy by empowering and facilitating institutions best suited to carry out stewardship functions at the local level.