The multi-purpose centre at Zarzis covering 600 sqm at the local fishing school is to be inaugurated on Tuesday.
The new facility hosts a museum dedicated to fishing, a meeting room for training and a restaurant serving typical local produce and fish from the region. The centre has been built in the context of project NEMO aiming to strengthen cross-border socio-economic development in the coastal communities of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt by valorising and relaunching the fishing sector. In Tunisia the project, funded by the Italian foreign ministry with a voluntary donation from the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) and collaboration from Tunisia’s Directorate-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture, aims to promote sustainable socio-economic development in the Médenine region through the valorisation of a multi-purpose centre for the coastal communities of Zarzis, the relaunch of professional fishing organisations, income improvement through training and demonstration activities for local fishermen and marketing for their products. The cooperation project stems from the desire of the Italian government to activate special funding for the benefit of young people in countries involved in the so-called Arab Spring, according to the director of the Italian agency for development cooperation in Tunisia, Cristina Natoli. “In these countries the political transition phase has increased migration to Italy and Europe and illegal activities on the border with Libya,” Natoli told ANSAmed.
“For this reason the intervention aims to accompany local institutions in their task of directing rural coastal communities towards new income-generating activities that are complementary to existing ones, enabling beneficiaries not to abandon their roots to seek their fortune abroad,” she added. The activities focus on the Médenine governorate, from where many young people migrate to Italy, often selling their fishing boats to raise the money needed for the sea crossing. These migrants are the children of fishermen or farmers who can no longer see opportunities in the traditional sectors, when in fact the local fishing and agricultural resources have great potential. NEMO – launched in March 2014 and due to end in February 2017 – is funded to the tune of around 800,000 euros and carries out its activities in full partnership with the Tunisian government and Directorate-General for Fisheries.
Source: ANSAmed
