Milestones
The Santiago de Compostela Declaration: Promoting equal opportunities in fisheries and aquaculture
By Venugopalan N (icsf@icsf.net), Programme Manager, ICSF
The Santiago de Compostela Declaration for Equal Opportunities in the Fishing Sector and Aquaculture’ was approved at the end of the opening day of the First International Conference of Women in Fisheries 5-7 November 2018. Held in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of northwest Spain’s Galicia region, the meeting was organized jointly by the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, also known as MAPAMA) a ministerial department of the Government of Spain and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Calling attention to the vast but undervalued contributions of women both in terms of labour force and wealth generation, to the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, the Declaration recognises that women are the predominant human capital in activities such as transforming and trading with fisheries products, and they constitute a workforce of 20 million across the world engaged in extractive fishing and processing or selling, comprising 70 per cent of the aquaculture industry’s workforce.
In view of the deep structural barriers and constraints that women in these sectors face, the Declaration supports the formation of women’s associations and the creation of organisational structures that bring together and represent several professional groups of women in fisheries and aquaculture. It also recommends the creation of a network or international platform of women in fisheries which will foster their empowerment and leadership.
The declaration is available at: https://wsi-asso.us17.list manage.com/track/click?u=5541e561077c854f904076de9&id=a44bdbcea2&e=9b67e46e5a
