The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of Yemaya, its newsletter on gender and fisheries.
Yemaya No. 66, dated March 2023, features articles on the IYAFA Asia workshop, the national-level women in fisheries workshop in Chennai, India, gender and marine plastic pollution, as well as a report of a panel discussion during the 8th Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries.
In the current issue, Kyoko Kusakabe writes that gender-responsive fisheries require not only changes in fisheries practices but also changes in the daily practices of the community and households.
Nivedita Sridhar illustrates the shortcomings of the lack of preferential treatment of women in all relevant fisheries policies, legislation and schemes at the State and Union levels in India. The Chennai workshop recommended the expansion of the scope of social protection schemes in fisheries to benefit men and women, especially female-headed households, and to register and provide licences to all women fishers and fishworkers, including gleaners, apart from also developing a database.
Veena N. and Kyoko Kusakabe flag some key issues that need further research and analysis to understand the gendered impact of marine plastic on fishing communities in three different dimensions, namely, their fishing activities, their post-harvest activities and within the relations in the households.
Nilanjana Biswas and Ahana Lakshmi, in their symposium report, highlight the key issues facing women today. The symposium discussed whether the discourse on women in fisheries explicitly recognizes women’s human rights, labour rights, environmental rights, and the attendant social impacts.
Veena N., in her summary of “Building Back Better from COVID-19”, while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, examines how each of the Sustainable Development Goals was based on a vision of a just and equitable world. The report recommends a human-rights-based and gender-transformative approach to the implementation of all aspects of the 2030 Agenda.
The Profile column by Tracey Lee Dennis looks at how Charmaine Daniels, while battling several challenges at the family and fishing levels, is worried that government policies are depriving fisher women of their dignity.
The current issue of Yemaya also spotlights SSF-LEX, which contains information distilled from the FAOLEX database, with a menu specially customised for the SSF Guidelines. Ahana Lakshmi opines that this database would be of great value, especially for the purpose of advocacy and lobbying.
The Milestones column by Sivaja Nair looks at the recently published gender plan of action of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The gender plan of action requests national governments and relevant organizations to incorporate the plan in national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and to include gender-specific indicators in the development of national indicators, collecting data disaggregated by sex, age and other demographic factors and gender indicators.
Sokha Eng, in the Yemaya Recommends section, points out that the film “The Unseen Faces, Unheard Voices: Women and Aquaculture” shows how the gender division of labour and restrictive social norms prevent women from accessing the benefit of governments’ aquacultural initiatives.
Yemaya No. 66 can be accessed at:
https://www.icsf.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Yemaya_66_March_2023_ICSF.pdf
https://www.icsf.net/yemaya-articles.php?id=9111
For more, please visit: www.icsf.net