With world attention on climate change, two recent publications on gender and climate change, though not focused on fisheries and aquaculture, deliver a similar message: yes, women and men have different vulnerabilities to climate change, gendered analysis and approaches are needed but women and men’s agency, not just women and men’s vulnerabilities should be considered.

This new FAO Technical Paper gives a global overview of beach seine fisheries, studies the operations in several countries in depth and identifies key issues in the responsible use of beach seines and the sustainable livelihoods of beach seine fishers including women and children. It examines women’s roles in 9 country case studies – Benin, Ghana,...

Here are excerpts from the abstract of this interesting new review of the scientific evidence on fish consumption and health, including gender-based distinctions in advice. In response to growing public concern in recent years regarding the presence of chemical contaminants in fish as well as emerging evidence on the multiple nutritional benefits of...

This new ‘public data explorer’ results from a collaboration between Goolge and the World Bank. It offers great graphing options for the latest world indicators on: – economy – environment, – global links – people and markets, and – world view ...

The World Bank has released two new resources to complment its recent 2012 World Development Report (see our post). These resources will be useful to researchers and experts seeking statistics to give context to their work. World Bank Little Data Book on Gender (2011) Available online only as e-book, ‘this handy pocket guide is a ...

New from the Spain-FAO-RFLP! ‘Women play a significant role in fisheries, yet lack of attention to gender roles and relations can result in policies or programmes failing to improve livelihoods or reduce vulnerability of fishing communities. The largely ‘invisible’ role of women in small-scale fisheries must be addressed if actions aimed at improving the livelihoods ...

Gender research is still sparse for gender and aquaculture, fisheries and the coasts. Gender studies are a little further advanced in agriculture and natural resource management. Very useful resource materials can be found from the work of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), one of the CGIAR Centers. Here are 5 links to IFPRI ...

This Expert Paper by Christine Okali of University of the University of Sussex is well worth reading. It was prepared for the UN Women Expert Group Meeting on Enabling rural women’s economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities and participation that is now being held in Accra, Ghana, in cooperation with FAO, IFAD and WFP. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/egm/Okali-EP-8-EGM-RW-Sep-2011.pdf Achieving Transformative Change ...

FAO has just released a new handbook, “Communicating Gender for Rural Development.” This handbook contains good materials and clarifies some concepts. “Gender is at once a sociological concept, a development approach, an operational strategy and an analytical method”. Have a look especially at the schematic on page 16.

Another gender ‘first’ – the World Bank’s flagship World Development Report 2012 has gender as its theme for the first time: Gender Equality and Development. Released on 19 September 2011, the Bank says: “Gender equality matters in its own right but is also smart economics: Countries that create better opportunities and conditions for women and...

“Community listeners’ clubs: Stepping stones for action in rural areas” Invented in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by NGOs and FAO, community listeners’ clubs are creative new institutions that help rural women and men access and share information by radio to improve their lives and solve their farming and other problems and...

WorldFish Center has released an Issues Brief on Gender and Aquaculture, “Gender and aquaculture: sharing the benefits equitably” Download at: http://www.worldfishcenter.org/resource_centre/WF_2832.pdf The issues brief focuses on 5 themes that draw on many of the papers from previous AFS GAF Symposia and proceedings (see https://www.genderaquafish.org/events/ for hand access to all the previous proceedings and publications) Markets, trade...

This open access library contains some important papers and whole books from the fisheries and aquaculture social science field. A welcome addition to open access information. OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initiative to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social...

Over the last several months, studies, blogs and news articles have highlighted the challenges of assessing and understanding the various impacts of microfinance. Although not directly addressing fisheries and aquaculture, the findings are relevant to those studying gender in aquaculture and fisheries as microfinance is often part of a development initiative targeted at women in small scale...

HIV and syphilis prevalence and associated risk factors among fishing communities of Lake Victoria, Uganda By Gershim Asiki, Juliet Mpendo, Andrew Abaasa, Collins Agaba, Annet Nanvubya, Leslie Nielsen, Janet Seeley, Pontiano Kaleebu, Heiner Grosskurth, Anatoli Kamali Link (access required for full paper) Correspondence to Dr Gershim Asiki, Medical Research Council Research Unit on AIDS...

In the FAO-Spain Regional Fisheries Livelihood Program for South and Southeast Asia, the August Newsletter (download newsletter) contains several stories that highlight support for fishing community development, with strong participation by women. Gender (p. 6): Mainstreaming gender in fisheries in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam Post Harvest (p.5): – Timor Leste fishers to form National...

In studying peoples’ livelihoods in the Pinguino de Humboldt National Reserve and Isla Choro and Isla Damas Marine Reserve, Susan Qashu used a political ecology framework to study women’s and men’s strategies in adapting to a national marine reserve, national park, and tourism development while retaining their traditional fisheries. She found that women and men...

Urbanization trends and the social impacts of economic change are macro social and economic themes today but rarely do we look more closely at the impacts on local and rural people. Anna Karlsdóttir has recently looked more closely at the women’s perspectives in Husavık village, NE Iceland, in a study done after Iceland’s economic collapse. Over...

Lacking official records on the active involvement of women in Turkish fisheries and acknowledgement of their participation, this study set out to validate their involvement and learn more about the status of women in local fisheries in the southern Aegean Sea region of Turkey.

Recommended reading! “Influencing Change: Mainstreaming Gender Perspectives in Agricultural Research and Development in Eastern and Central Africa.” Edited by: Barun Gurung, Elizabeth Ssendiwala, Michael Waithaka Link to download publication Part of the CGIAR Particiaptory Research and Gender Analysis Program, the project from which this very useful report came sought to influence the policies of agricultural ...

Research agencies are very important social institutions in fisheries and aquaculture. Over the decades, their knowledge continues to grow and multiply, enriched through partnerships, outreach and synergies between existing and new ideas. The electronic information era creates new opportunities to make agency knowledge more accessible through creating institute repositories. In the last year, two major ...

Congratulations to NACA for winning this prestigious award! https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/margarita-lizarraga The Margarita Lizárraga Medal Award was established by the FAO Conference in 1997 to honour the memory of Dr Magarita Lizárraga, former Senior Fishery Liaison Officer, for her decisive role in promoting the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and for her productive work in the Read more about NACA wins the Margarita Lizárraga Medal ...

UN Women’s has released its first Annual Report The Report highlights UN Women actions in 5 areas 1. Increasing Women’s Leadership and Participation 2. Enhancing Women’s Economic Empowerment 3. Ending Violence against Women and Girls 4. Engaging Women in Peace and Security Responses 5. Making Plans and Budgets Gender-Responsive ...

Rigorous studies on the effects of introduced fish pond and vegetable technologies in Bangladesh show that “..women’s assets increase more relative to men’s when technologies are disseminated through women’s groups”, indicating that the gendered outcomes of new technologies depend on how they are introduced. This and related studies are reported in papers in the latest...

The good news: 2011 is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the world’s first veterinary science school (in Lyon, France) and the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. To celebrate, Prof. Mathuram of Madras Veterinary College (MVC), Tamil Nadu, India, spoke on gender issues in veterinary science (News story, Presentation). In many countries, women...

Opening Keynote Address at the 9th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum – Better Science, Better Fish, Better Life-w links – includes women’s contributions to production, fish value chains and the changing gender balance among university graduates for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has just released the latest edition of its triannual newsletter on gender and fisheries, Yemaya. Yemaya No. 36, dated March 2011, carries several articles from around the world on women in fisheries, and how gender and power relations play out in small-scale fisheries. A report on a...

“One Woman’s Advice to Another: It’s Always Time to Speak Your Mind” How women contribute and are perceived at work depends a lot on how they express their ideas and views. This article, although written for the US corporate workplace, contains some sage advice for all women, and indeed men, on how to make your...

In 2010-11, FAO’s annual flagship publication, The State of Food and Agriculture, is devoted almost totally to the role of women in agriculture, including some coverage of women in fisheries and aquaculture. Sub-titled, ‘Closing the gender gap for development’, it highlights that women face a serious gender gap in access to the most productive agricultural...

New UN Women Executive Director, Ms Michele Bachelet, laid out a new 100 day action plan. Ms. Bachelet also laid out five thematic priorities in the country-specific context: expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation; ending violence against women; ensuring women’s full participation in conflict resolution; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and gender equality priorities central to...