Starting in Tuvalu: A Participatory Approach to Fisheries Development
In May, I’ll be heading to Tuvalu to take up a three-month assignment with the National Fishing Corporation of Tuvalu as a Marketing, Facilities, and Donor Development Mentor through Australian Volunteers International.
The role is practical:
- assessing facilities and export readiness
- reviewing marketing approaches
- developing donor-ready funding proposals
But the work is not just technical.
Starting with the Problem
Much of development practice begins with an assumed problem—and a pre-formed solution.
My starting point is slightly different.
Before asking what should we do?, the question is:
what is the problem understood to be—and by whom?
This draws on a line of thinking I’ve been developing around problem representation in program design and evaluation.
A Participatory Approach
This assignment is an opportunity to take that seriously in practice.
That means:
- spending time with different actors across the system
- listening to how challenges are experienced and explained
- recognising that these explanations may differ
Fishers, vendors, processing staff, government partners—each will likely see the system differently.
Working Across Epistemic Frames
These differences matter.
Programs often struggle not because they are poorly implemented, but because they are built on partial or misaligned understandings of the problem.
Part of the work, then, is not just technical improvement—but making these perspectives visible and working across them.
Not necessarily resolving them—but understanding them well enough to act more effectively.
A Short Assignment, A Practical Focus
Three months is not long.
The aim is not to redesign the system, but to contribute in practical ways:
- identify key constraints
- support feasible improvements
- develop proposals grounded in local realities
Looking Ahead
This will be a learning process.
I’ll be sharing reflections along the way—particularly where assumptions hold, and where they don’t.
For now, the focus is simple:
Arrive.
Listen.
Understand the problem.
Then act.