Gender Issues in the Small Scale
Fisheries in the Pacific region
Challenge: Finding entry points
for strategic engagement
of women and men
Why –gender consideration?
• Usually inclusion of women is through a
“community approach”-cultural, social
barriers usually not considered ie. Ownership
& access
• Governance structures -vary
• Different areas of gender expertise and
traditional knowledge & skills.
• Small-scale fisheries includes the informal
sector with major participation of women.
The need for a more holistic definition
of small scale fisheries that
• involves support activities around fishing- women
• includes pre-harvest, post-harvest-processing,
packaging and all forms of value added activities
• Includes all forms of selling & marketing- cultural
and social barriers
• Distribution systems and distribution pointschallenges of transportation/preservation
• Community-based fisheries management plans
• Indirect impacts/factors affecting fisheries
• Institutional set ups at the community level
15 years after Beijing, 20 years after Rio,
CEDAW ratification -what has changed?
4 main questions that need to be asked
• What progress has taken place
• What shifts has occurred
• What measurement/indicators have been
developed to measure progress in gender
equity/men & women participation?
• Human rights and equitable rights to access,
Knowledge, opportunities.
• Emerging areas- Climate change, DRM
What shifts has occurred
• Women engaged in traditional men fishing
areas- diving for bech-de-mer, deep sea
fishing.
• Women have access to and own boats and
other improves technology, have access to
markets, internet, modern amenities- thus a
total change in lifestyle.
• Impact on women’s health
• Credit and financing mechanisms?
• Export market possibility
Poverty alleviation and food security
• Daily hunters and foragers of fish & food.
Generations of use of resources- knowledge, skills
perfected over time- need for acknowledgement ,
documentation and use of this knowledge when
considering adaptive strategies, alternative
livelihoods, introducing new technology/etc
• Depletion of resources, lack of alternative sources
of livelihood, migration, population displacement
coastal development and tourism, environmental
degradation, conflicts, climate change- impact on
men and women differently.
Poverty alleviation and food security
• Entry points for inclusion of women in decision
making• Legislation and policies to include women• New developments to have gender assessments
to clarify gender impacts ( costs/benefits).
• Need for integrated approaches• To have gender impacts at all stages of
projects/initiatives-consideration for social
mechanisms
Ways forward for better gender
integration
• Identification of direct and indirect
benefits/impacts- eg involvement in CCA & DRM
processes
• Proper assessments/analysis of women
engagement in projects developed
• Need for data on women/men participation
-income generation, etc
• How do we best integrate women/men issues,
areas of work, interests
-
Ways forward for better gender
integration
• Data on contribution to household income
and food security to be collected /analysed
• Value added activities/ productive uses of
fisheries products
• Processing/marketing strategies- and training
needs
• Social indicators to measure poverty reduction
and social contribution of SSF to be
developed.
Possible strategies- the way forward
• Strategic financing mechanisms to be
introduced in rural communities.
• More strategic marketing/export strategies to
be developed ( FACT).
• Finance/budgeting training/capital handling,
cash flow/etc
• Specific training on food handling and
labelling, food standards- export markets
The need for a more strategic
approach to gender inclusion
• Involvement at Planning and development
stage of projects crucial.
• Women targeted projects to be considered
in planning.
• Knowledge management
• Communication & transportation
• Inclusion of women as trainers and
participants in SSF.
Sufficiently addressed in the Draft
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Gender issues included in all areas.
Areas of intervention identified.
Areas of interest, involvement already addressed.
Progressive document that can raise the bar on
SSF & women/men.
• Positive discrimination of women- sustain
households and communities included.
• How to implement and sustain- need for
progressive approaches.