The e-dialogue is being organized as part of activities leading towards the International Women’s Day Celebrations and the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries (IYAFA 2022). According to the FAO Global Action Plan, Women account for about half the labour force in small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture, playing a central role in food production, processing and marketing. In addition, women combine income-generating work with unpaid household responsibilities, such as ensuring food security, nutrition and well-being for their families and communities, caring for children and the elderly. Despite these huge contributions, many female fishers, fish farmers and fish workers remain socially excluded and are more likely not to see their basic human rights respected. As producers, women face even greater constraints than their male counterparts in accessing essential productive resources and services, technology, market information, financial assets, financial services, technology and job opportunities. This “gender gap” limits women’s ability to take advantage of new opportunities and prevents them from reaching their full potential, both for themselves and their communities.
The high level blue dialogue therefore creates a platform that acknowledges the role women play in small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture, and the deep-rooted challenges they face as a way of constructing gender-based approaches to management, allowing and incentivizing women to engage in responsibilities all along the value chains.