A growing body of research centers on how women are involved in wild-caught fisheries worldwide, and the critical roles that fisheries play in women’s economic empowerment. USAID and IUCN cataloged this research in a report released in 2019, Advancing Gender in the Environment: Gender in Fisheries – A Sea of Opportunities. In developing this report, USAID and IUCN staff identified a gap in the existing research around women’s empowerment, access to financial services, and the sustainability of fisheries management. While women’s empowerment and access to finance are featured in wild-caught fisheries programming, it is not well understood whether these approaches contribute to sustainable fisheries outcomes. 

The Learning Initiative is designed to investigate two hypotheses