Their first initiative was to obtain the legal status of “fisher’s wife" in order to ensure professional rights to small-scale fisheries and secure social security benefits. After several years of campaigning, on 18 Novem ber 1997 the Fisheries’ Orientation Law was passed, which granted wives of fishers the status of "collaborative spouse”, with retirement benefits and rights to represent their husbands in economic councils. Following this, eight regional women’s organizations formed the Federation Interregional des femmes du Littoral (FIFEL - “Interregional Federation of Coastal Women”) in May 1998 to further promote the role of women fishers as agents of economic development, and to promote a global vision of social, economic and environmental development for the small-scale fisheries sector (Roux. The social security benefits granted to the newly formalized role of collaborative spouse were in line with Para 6.3, which calls upon States to promote social security protection for workers in small-scale fisheries.