Originally, the task in Timor Leste was to teach the fisheries staff how to produce the fisheries statistics to send to FAO. In discussions with national fisheries staff it quickly became apparent there was a huge need for the development of some basic skills before we could get to the stage where they could deliver fisheries data.
So as a first step, we decided to concentrate our efforts into helping the country setup the system to collect the right types and volumes of data. That instead of trying to teach each of the staff to collect the data and produce the statistics in their respective districts, we would have them enter the data through the website and we would have routines on the website do the statistical analysis.
Within the first year, Timor Leste inspected and licensed every boat in the country (N>2500) and made the information publicly available to other departments and partner organizations . Additionally, for the first time they have collected fisheries catch data from the fishermen and aggregated that at the country level. This data has been submitted as Timor Leste's data contribution to international authorities. You can view this and more at through the website.