Economic Impact

As part of this current project in Indonesia, a colleague and I are trying to build an Economic Impact Assessment model so that we can try and predict the likely effects on trade and on employment of interventions we might suggest to improve the Indonesian Fisheries sector (which is why we are here).

Building such a model involves the collection of a lot of economic and socio-economic data and then trying to work out linkages and inter-relationships (especially causal ones!).

It is hard work - and sometimes my brain hurts!! - but i recommend it as a way of getting a deep understanding of an industry or sector. I now have a pretty good idea of how fishing (and associated processing and logistics) works here .... and I am starting to understand how things we might think of doing will harmonise (or not) with government policy or will affect the employment of fishermen on remote islands (and their families) and so on. It certainly makes one aware of wider responsibilities - to the various stakeholders with an interest in what we are doing.