THE University of St Andrews has been awarded a grant of nearly £300,000 to help protect the livelihoods of fishing communities in Peru hit by Covid-19.
The Scottish university was awarded £297,163 from the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) through the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Newton Fund.
Researchers will address the urgent need to understand the impact Covid-19 has had on fishing dependent communities and to develop strategies to reactive the seafood supply chain while minimising further infections.
The 18-month project will create an onljne survey platform and monitor 12 key fishing communities to provide information to support decisions for the Inter-Agency Consortium (IAC) led by the regional government in the Piura region of Peru.
Online survey instruments will be developed and twelve Community Monitors trained to use them remotely to collect the data from twelve key fishing communities.
The data collected will include: health and welfare, fisheries related production and market information together with other local socio-economic indicators.
Gaps in social welfare, poor infrastructure and living conditions as well as high levels of informal employment exacerbate the impact of this disease in Peru.
Artisanal fisheries are an important and overlooked activity which provides employment and basic nutrition for some of the poorest in rural areas. Thousands of jobs in the seafood supply chain are affected by the pandemic.
