Milestones
Towards gender-equitable fisheries
By Venugopalan N (icsf@icsf.net), Programme Manager, ICSF
The Food and Agriculture Orgnization of the United Nations recently released the publication titled Towards gender-equitable small-scale fisheries governance and developmentA handbook. Prepared by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), this handbook aims at providing practical guidance on how to achieve gender-equitable small-scale fisheries in the context of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication or the SSF Guidelines.
Women play a key role in the small-scale fisheries, in particular in post-harvest activities relating to processing, marketing and trade, but their role remains undervalued, a gap that this handbook tries to address. The target of this handbook is twofold: (i) policy makers/public administrators working with small-scale fisheries will be informed about ways to ensure gender-sensitive policies, investments and small-scale fisheries sector support, (ii) CSOs/Fisheries organizations will receive guidance on how to actively support the empowerment of women in small-scale fisheries. However, this publication is also relevant for other audiences who can provide a support function to other key audiences such as academics, researchers, donors and their resource partners.
The preparatory process for this handbook included the gathering of case studies and illustrative examples of small-scale fishing communities and government agencies from all over the world, to highlight and interpret the principles and recommendations of the SSF Guidelines in support of gender equality.
An online survey as well as two regional workshops (in Costa Rica and in Senegal) gathered input from people who have worked in the sector for many years and at many levels, including government, civil society organizations (CSOs), research and academia, and regional organizations and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs). On behalf of ICSF, Mariette Correa coordinated the preparatory process and the draft was authored by Nilanjana Biswas.
To access the handbook, please visit http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7419e.pdf
