Gender and aquaculture: sharing the benefits equitably



Gender and aquaculture:

Sharing the benefits from fish farming equitably

knowledge and hidden strengths in adaptive
capacity and resilience. Thus, it is important
to understand the differential capabilities and
capacities of women and men to respond to
disasters.

Market (micro-insurance) and social
safety net (transfers) mechanisms are
generally considered effective strategies for
managing disaster risks. The access to and
effectiveness of such options differ. Risk
perception, vulnerability, coping strategies
and adaptation needs also differ among
different categories of women and men. Are
markets or safety nets more likely to provide
gender-equitable outcomes? Vulnerable
aquaculture communities now excluded from
social protection need appropriate climate
change adaptation options.

Assessing the gendered impacts of climate
variability, change, disasters, and responses
among differentiated categories of women
and men is therefore necessary. A better
understanding of the gendered nature of
coping and risk perception would help
us design gender equitable mitigation
and adaptation strategies to address the
potentially unequal impacts of climate
change on vulnerable groups.

Rising water levels that increase the area
covered by water can also create new
opportunities for aquaculture production. A
range of new options, for example, farming of
short production cycle species such as the
GIFT strain of Nile tilapia, climate proofing
of fish cages and pens, and integrated
aquaculture-agriculture, may become
possible. Soft mitigation options to protect
livelihood resources from flooding and salt

water intrusion could be available. Gender
equitable access to new resources and
technologies required for climate change
adaptation is an important area for planning
and intervention.

We also need to ensure that policies and
institutional arrangements — such as
disaster preparedness plans and post-
disaster rehabilitation processes, which help
mainstream climate change adaptation into
broader aquaculture and rural development
policies —incorporate gender concerns.
Women need to be included in decision-
making related to mitigation and adaptation
in order to build resilience in fish farming
communities.

CONCLUSION

At the WorldFish Center, mainstreaming
gender into research, policy advice and pilot
interventions isan evolving agenda. It is based
on gaps in the research and the needs of
stakeholders in the fisheries and aquaculture
sector. Thus, we continuously seek your
feedback to ensure that this agenda remains
current and relevant. Some emerging CGIAR
collaborative research programs, particularly
CRP 1.3 on “Harnessing the development
potential of aquatic agricultural systems
for the poor and vulnerable”, provide a new
opportunity for improving our understanding
of the impacts of aquaculture on women.

By using the gender lens to analyze issues
of aquaculture sustainability, we would like
to establish the differential contribution of
women and men to production and value
addition within this sector, as well as to
bring into the spotlight the varying degrees
of economic and social returns they obtain.
As aquaculture grows, are women getting
their equitable share of this growth process?
The well-being of aquaculture communities,
based on the sustainability of fish farming
as a livelihood strategy, may depend on the
answers we manage to find.

REFERENCES

Asian Development Bank. (2007) Women do
matter: Enhancing the role of women in
inland fisheries in Cambodia. The Tonle
Sap Initiative. ADB, Manila, 7 pages.



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