With deep regret, I convey the sad news that Dr M.C. Nandeesha, the inspiration for starting the Asian Fisheries Society’s Gender/Women in Fisheries/Aquaculture activities in the early 1990s, has passed away in Chennai, India. The gender and fisheries community, and others such as the fisheries education and aquaculture research and development communities, convey their sincere...

“Gender equality thinking should not focus just on the numbers of women and men in fish supply chains”, said Gifty Anane-Taabeah (Ghana), the final panelist on Overcoming Gender Equalities in Fish Supply Chains. The panel and two presentation sessions (Markets and Value Chains for Small Aquaculture Enterprises and Looking at Fish Supply Chains with a...

The United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) held its first Research and Communication in Foreign Aid project workshop on gender equality (12-13 July 2012, Helsinki). Gender equality is one of the project’s five themes. The workshop identified key focus areas for what works, what could work, what is transferable, and...

A new working paper from WorldFish Center delves into some of the basic background information needed to develop research and development programs with a gender focus in aquaculture and fisheries production systems in Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Zambia. Transforming aquatic agricultural systems towards gender equality: a five country review Weeratunge, N., Chiuta,...

By Rosario H. Asong, PhD and Anna Razel Ramirez of The National Network on Women in Fisheries in the Philippines, Inc. NNWFP Holds 6th Biennial National Conference The National Network on Women in Fisheries in the Philippines, Inc. held its 6th Biennial National Conference on Gender and Fisheries on September 19-21, 2012 at Hotel Alejandro,,...

A new UNDP report – Powerful Synergies: Gender Equality, Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability – is aimed at the policy makers. It does not explicitly address fisheries and aquaculture, but this document nevertheless is useful background on how the global environment agreements and events have virtually ignored gender, and specifically women. Description. “This publication, Powerful Synergies: Gender,...

To highlight the importance of small scale capture fisheries contributions to employment, livelihood and the economy, the World Bank recently released its study on “Hidden Harvest: The Global Contribution of Capture Fisheries”. FAO and WorldFish Center also collaborated on the study. Download the report here Although cautious in its conclusions owing to the quality of ...

Seaweed farming has grown at much the same rapid rate as other forms of aquaculture in the last twenty years, but seaweeds are produced in far fewer countries than, for example, farmed fish. The Philippines and Tanzania are among the top 8 countries. India is not yet on the list but, on the Coromandel (southeast) ...

What Difference Does a Policy Brief Make? Penelope Beynon, Christelle Chapoy, Marie Gaarder and Edoardo Masset of the Institute of Development Studies, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and NORAD carried out an intriguing randomized control design survey involving over 800 experts to try to answer this question. The policy brief used in the study was ...

Prof Vijaykhader has a strong record of contributions to women in fisheries through food technology research and education in India. Her contributions have been recognized recently. She was appointed by the Government of India National Mission on Education and the Ministry of Human Resources Development as the subject coordinator for ICT enabled Higher Education at...

This highly readable account of a social scientist’s experience in returning to his own community to conduct research will make field researchers reflect on, how, as Dr Turgo says, “our identities as researchers are made and remade through the research process”. The gender insights are also revealing, such as what women and men do after Re...

A new web-based data system from the World Bank and a report, “Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion” provides valuable legal information on laws affecting businesses. In aquaculture and fisheries, many studies have found that access to investment credit, capital and rights over resources, land and other assets are not equal for women and men in...

The Genderaquafish Glossary has been updated! Every wondered what ‘intersectionality’ is? Or how ‘matriarchy, ‘patriarchy’ and ‘feminism’ are defined? Look up our updated Glossary of Terms to find out.

The latest issue of “Yemaya”, the gender and fisheries newsletter of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, has just been released, containing materials on global initiatives (Rio+20, FAO’s Committee on Fisheries work and CEDAW), and special reports on gender dimensions of fisheries in Africa (Gambia, Senegal, Tanzania), and profiles of leaders from Indonesia and...

Two papers published recently (see below) in Marine Policy journal examine in depth gendered roles in the fishing communities of Northern Ireland and northern England, respectively. In the Northern Island case, Easkey Britton and Sarah Coulthard used a three-dimensional framework to measuring social progress (material, relational and cognitive dimensions) and conclude that “fishing society is...

Many readers of Genderaquafish are interested in or already working on climate change projects in aquaculture and fisheries. Therefore, we especially thank Cornelie Quist for alerting us to the rich set of resources on gender and climate change that were recently released in BRIDGE Update, Issue No. 92, June 2012 http://archive.ids.ac.uk/bridge/cutting-edge-programmes/gender-and-climate-change.html In the BRIDGE Update...

The Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin is always welcome. The WIF Bulletin started in 1997 and always contains interesting information from the central and western Pacific ocean, the region where women have traditionally had a very active role in fisheries. Here is the line-up of articles from the 22nd issue. We thank the coordinator Veikila...

The answer is “from all over the world” – from 112 countries to be more precise! Starting in late February 2012, WordPress.com, the host of this site, has provided site administrators with information on which country each view comes from. We have analyzed the statistics for the approximately four month period since geographic statistics were ...

Mekong Gender and Fisheries Network Meets in Nong Khai, Thailand On 21 and 22 June 2012, the world’s longest running gender and fisheries network, the Mekong Network for Gender Promotion in Fisheries Development (NGF) held its 13th annual meeting and field visits to women’s groups for fish processing and aquaculture in the northwest of Thailand...

The Ostional National Wildlife Refuge on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica is well known for its turtle fisheries and allied turtle conservation efforts. Women and men are actively engaged in the fishery and protection activities, usually in different ways. This management analysis in Marine Policy (open access article) (“What makes them follow the rules? Empirical ...

Climate Change and Fisheries: Perspectives from Small-scale Fishing Communities in India on Measures to Protect Life and Livelihood by Venkatesh Salagrama, Through consultations with key fisheries-based stakeholders in four States of India, this study attempts to assess perceptions of fishing communities about the impact of climate change on their lives and livelihoods. It also evaluates ...

Thanks to FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division’s Aquaculture service, we are able to provide a link to a copy of just Chapter 6.3 from the Proceedings of the Global Aquaculture Conference. Here is the link to download the chapter –Sustaining aquaculture by developing human capacity and enhancing opportunities for women. The link has also been Re...

We are delighted to announce that the “Proceedings of the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010: Farming the Waters for People and Food” has now been launched, including a chapter on gender and human capacity development, and the inclusion of gender in the Phuket Concensus statement. The inclusion of gender is a breakthrough and a first ...

Two new gender analysis tools could be useful for your research. One is the gender and asset toolkit, and the second is a mapper, specifically for agriculture and natural resources in Africa. 1. Gender and Asset Toolkit Assets, control over them and their ownership are a critical component of the well-being of individuals and households.

RFLP’s team in the Philippines won the ‘Women in Fisheries’ award for its short film entitled “From gambling to earning” featuring the efforts of the La Conception Women’s Association. The Women in Fisheries Award was contested by the six RFLP countries to recognize and encourage their efforts to mainstream gender in their activities. Taking runner’s...

Updated February 2013! In her recent paper in the SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin, Poh Sze Choo reported, among other results, on a survey of gender roles in sea cucumber fishing in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. She found that “fishers who collect sea cucumbers in Semporna belong to either the Bajau Tempatan or Bajau Laut communities. Most...

Workshop short report by the following four colleagues from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. Dr B. Shanthi, Senior Scientist, CIBA, Chennai Dr.B.Meenakumari, Deputy Director General, (Fisheries), New Delhi Dr.P.Jayashankar, Director, CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, and Dr.Vipinkumar,V.P, Senior Scientist, CMFRI, Kochi, Kerala. Under the UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia) led ASEM Aquaculture Platform WP7 (ASEM stands for Asia-Europe...

Disaster risk reduction and good governance were the topics highlighted at the Women’s Day Forum held at UP Visayas on March 9, 2012, Iloilo City campus. The Chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Women, Ms. Remedios I. Rikken, delivered the keynote address in response to this year’s theme: “Women Weathering Climate Change: Governance and Accountability...

The recent North Atlantic Seafood Forum, held in Norway, drew protests from atteendees at the paucity of visible women on the agenda (4 of 64 speakers, one of whom was Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, the Norwegian fisheries Minister – pic). The story, “the gender issue” from SeafoodSource.com is well worth reading.

Many aquaculture and fisheries agencies and research institutes are starting to wonder what they should be doing about getting gender into their work – “mainstreaming” is one of the buzz words we hear. Across the fence in agricultural research organizations, you can find some useful materials to guide your organizations’s emerging gender strategy. Start by taking a look...

What Works for Women: Proven approaches for empowering women smallholders and achieving food security This book has been produced by a group of nine international development agencies, including some of the biggest welfare NGOs. It distills their experiences from their efforts to promote gender equality and working with women smallholders and rural women over many...

A new tool for measuring women’s empowerment in agriculture should have good applications in the aquaculture sector also. The index was developed through a partnership between the US Agency for International Development (USAID), IFPRI and Oxford University’s Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI). Using 5 criteria, it measures the empowerment of women in agriculture and in their own...

8th March is International Women’s Day! The UN’s theme for 2012 is Empower Rural Women – End Poverty and Hunger. This is also an appropriate call for women in aquaculture and fisheries. Women now make up a greater percentage of the agricultural workforce than they did a few decades ago. Individual studies on gender...

The February Newsletter of the FAO-Spain Regional Fisheries Livelihood Program (RFLP) has stories of women’s contribuitons to improving fish quality and of finding additional income earning opportunities outside the fisheries supply chain.

We often lament that women’s roles and contributions to fisheries are invisible. This wonderful FAO photogallery of Tunisian women harvesting clams [Ruditapes decussatus] (click here) is one example that contradicts us! It is accompanied also by a very thorough and informative YouTube video (click here) [in French] on the FAO YouTube Channel. The harvesters work...

Click here to view video We recommend you check out this new comprehensive FAO aquaculture video that, among others, highlights the role of women in aquacutlure. Good to see women highlighted in a mainstream aquaculture presentation. Turning Points in Modern Aquaculture Short Description: “This 15-min video was produced by the Aquaculture Service of the FAO Fisheries...

Recently we posted on ‘Learning from gender research in agriculture’, now its time to pick up some materials and methods from work being done on gender in the livestock and rural poverty realms. Here are some useful websites and materials. I thank Beth Miller for alerting us to these livestock and gender resources. 1. Poverty...

In her 2011 papers, Nilanjana Biswas, an independent researcher from India, argued that research on women and fisheries had shifted, over the decades, from a ‘political economy’ approach to a ‘political ecology’ approach. Along with this, fisheries development assistance and general development assistance has shifted to align efforts with those of countries to become more...

The December 2011 RFLP Newsletter (FAO-Spain Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme) features several articles on projects that reach out to women, such as vocational training, skills enhancement in processing, and a case study gender analysis for Negombo and Puttalam Districts in Sri Lanka. To download the Newletter: Dec 2011 RFLP Newsletter Sri Lanka gender analysis report: Gender_Analysis_Puttalam_Negombo...

Wishing all you, our GAF readers, a happy, successful and productive 2012! We thought you might like to hear how Genderaquafish is being used. For the following information, I thank WordPress, our site hosts, for their excellent statistics. Since starting up in late 2010, we have been fairly active and well read. In just over...

ransition in nori cultivation : evolution of household contribution and gendered division of labor by Dr A. Delaney ad@ifm.aau.dk In Cahiers de Biologie Marine Link [CdBM (2011) Vol 52(4):527-533] Abstract: Consumers throughout the world have gained familiarity with the seaweed nori (porphyra spp) thanks to the popularity of Asian cuisine, particularly Japanese sushi. Few actually know...