GENDER ISSUES IN FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FAO is committed to integrate and enhance the role of women in fisheries and aquaculture development. However, field experience indicates that the development of operational strategies has been difficult. In recognition of this limited success and with the aim of identifying operational strategies for the full integration of gender issues in fisheries and aquaculture development/ FAO/SIDA Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme (ALCOM), in collaboration with the FAO Policy and Planning Division and the Core Group on Women in Fisheries, hosted a regional workshop on Enhanced Women's Participation in Fisheries Development during 4–7 December 1990 at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. FAO project position papers and case studies on the integration of women in fisheries and aquaculture were presented.

This report elaborates on the discussions of the workshop by describing the issues considered critical to the integration of gender concerns in development activities. Components of overall operational strategies to address these issues are also discussed. The report is also intended to serve as a basis for future seminars on gender issues in fisheries and aquaculture by providing material for discussion, corroboration or refutal.

Based on project experience, one of the main conclusions of the workshop was that strategies to enhance the role of women in fisheries and aquaculture development had to be addressed within the broader issues of gender.

Integrating gender issues into mainstream development activities implies addressing both practical and strategic gender needs. Practical gender needs relate to addressing the existing roles of men and women (eg. the introduction of labour-saving technologies) and addressing strategic gender needs relate to changing their roles in society (eg. improving educational opportunities). Activities should therefore focus on the community as a whole, with equal importance accorded to addressing the different needs of men and women.

The workshop also concluded that activities to enhance the role of women fail when they are considered as an homogenous group. Like any other broad target group, women are socio-economically differentiated and face different constraints regarding access to and control over resources. Furthermore, men can also face the same constraints as women.

Failure to fully integrate gender issues at all stages of the project cycle from identification through to evaluation has been caused by a number of reasons. These include a lack of gender-disaggregated socio-economic information, poor and inflexible project design, and limited training on gender issues given to project and extension staff. Addressing these issues is the responsibility of the agents of the institutional framework of the project cycle: FAO Fisheries Department, FAO member governments and donors.

Gender issues specific to fisheries or aquaculture development relate to the access to and control over, resources. For fisheries, the critical issues generally relate to enhancing women's roles in development activities. For aquaculture, the critical issues relate to the participation of women in an activity which has been predominantly targeted at men. -

The critical issues are complemented with strategy components intended to contribute to the development of an overall strategy to address these issues. Further documentation of experience and testing of approaches still needs to be carried out, before an overall operational strategy can be developed.

The report concludes with five areas for immediate follow-up action for FAO Fisheries Department, Regional Offices and global, regional or national programmes. These areas of action focus on improving information bases, strengthening support to all stages of the project cycle, research and development of operational methods to integrate gender issues, strengthening institutional capabilities and integrating gender issues in planning process.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The 1979 World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development recognised the vital role of women in agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Since then, FAO has developed and adopted a number of policy recommendations and strategies concerning the integration of women and gender concerns in all their activities, culminating in the Plan of Action for Women in Agricultural Development in 1988. For the fisheries and aquaculture sector, this was reinforced by the 1984 World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development which recommended that fisheries development programmes should enhance the role of women. As a result, a number of activities were implemented through FAO Regular and Field Programmes. By 199 0, project experience had indicated that successful integration of women in development activities was taking place too slowly and a review of fisheries and aquaculture project experience in Africa (see Appendix 3) confirmed this conclusion.

In recognition of this limited progress and with the aim of identifying operational strategies for the full integration of gender issues in fisheries and aquaculture, the FAO/SIDA Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme (ALCOM), in collaboration with the Core Group on Women in Fisheries and the Fisheries Planning and Policy Division, hosted a Regional Workshop on Enhanced Women's Participation in Fisheries Development during 4–7 December 1990 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The proceedings of the workshop are contained in this volume. The purpose of this report is to elaborate on the critical issues which were identified at the workshop, and to develop strategies to address these issues. These strategies should be regarded as components of an overall strategy for more effective methods to integrate gender issues in fisheries and aquaculture development, still to be developed and tested. Furthermore, the report is intended to serve as a structure for other seminars on gender issues so that future case studies on gender can be linked to this structure, either to verify or to dispute the conclusions and proposed strategies put forward in this report.

1.2 What are gender issues?

Gender issues relate to addressing the practical and strategic gender needs of the community.

Practical gender needs

Addressing practical gender needs refers to satisfying the needs of men and women within their existing roles in society.

They are usually a response to an immediate necessity and they do not challenge the prevailing norms of society. Development activities which address practical needs of women include those which:

• reduce workloads, such as wells and grinding mills;

• improve health, such as primary health centres, family planning/birth spacing advice;

• increase incomes through improved access to markets and skills training.

Strategic gender needs

Addressing strategic gender needs refers to changing the structure and nature of relationships between men and women, often affecting economic and social processes within the community.

Examples of development activities which address strategic gender needs relating to women include those which:

• improve educational opportunities, such as literacy classes;

• improve access to productive assets such as access to agricultural land and common property resources.

Throughout the workshop discussions, it was considered that the integration of issues around men and women's roles in society (ie. gender), should be an integral and important part of project design and implementation. By dealing with gender issues in this way, women within a community would not be isolated as a target group, because development activities would focus on the community as a whole.

1.3 Sustainability

A fundamental assumption throughout the paper is that fisheries and aquaculture development activities must ensure long-term sustainability by achieving economic, socio-cultural and ecological/environmental viability. This, in turn, depends on the socio-cultural norms of the communities and the changes brought about by realising strategic gender needs, such as the introduction of new economic activities for women, like fish farming.

However, it is recognised that sustainability is not a static process but depends external factors, such as changes in exchange rates, civil war etc. which may be difficult to predict.

2. INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; CRITICAL ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

The institutional framework within which FAO development activities operate is described in Appendix 5. This is summarised in Figure 1. A number of critical gender issues have been identified with regard to the agents of this framework. The following chapter describes these issues and proposes a number of strategy components.

Figure 1 : Institutional Framework

2.1 FAO Fisheries Department

Despite FAOs commitment to integrate women in development activities, there remain a number of critical issues that require priority action by the Fisheries Department.

Information

When sectoral plans are prepared for fisheries and aquaculture, there is a paucity of gender-specific socio-economic information. However, where the data does exist, no systematic method of consolidation and dissemination of gender disaggregated information has been established.

Expertise

Briefing of consultants, experts and other project field staff does not systematically incorporate gender aspects. Also, the experts and consultants who are directly involved in field project identification/formulation missions are often not competent to carry out gender analysis and in some cases, are unaware of the importance of taking gender issues into consideration. This leads to insubstantial consideration of gender issues in project formulation missions and consequently, in the project design. There has also been very limited technical backstopping concerning socio-economics and gender issues in particular, because no expertise is currently available.

Budget allocation

Up to now, only a very limited budget coordinated by the Core Group on Women in Fisheries has been allocated to gender issues in fisheries or aquaculture. These resources have been used to produce a bibliography on women in fisheries, prepare guidelines for women in fisheries, audio-visual ‘awareness’ material and the sponsoring of workshops.

Inter-departmental linkages

Other departments within FAO, such as forestry and agriculture are also developing strategies and field methodologies to integrate gender concerns in their projects. Despite the activities of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Women in Development, communication and coordination of activities between departments and coordination of workplans, is limited.

2.2 FAO Member governments

Although in many countries socio-economic aspects of fisheries and aquaculture development have gained importance in government priorities, gender issues have seldom been addressed in sectoral plans. The following issues are considered to be the most important factors contributing to this situation.

Information

Gender specific socio-economic information is often not collected or accessible to national development planners. This makes it difficult for the incorporation of these issues into sectoral plans. The problem is compounded by a lack of documentation about the advantages of integrating gender concerns into the development planning process and the disadvantages of neglecting them.

Awareness of Government staff

Senior government staff in fisheries administrations and institutions are often not aware of the relevance of the integration of gender issues, or are not equipped with skills to incorporate them in their work plans.

Policy Formulation/Development Planning

The absence of gender sensitive socio-economic analysis in sectoral reviews together with the lack of awareness of government staff, has led to limited integration of gender issues into general sectoral development plans. Although, national development plans in developing countries often consider "women in development" as a separate sector, such issues are not integrated into the sectoral plans for fisheries and aquaculture.

Inter-sectoral linkages

Integration of different government ministries and institutions is often not facilitated, hindering effective implementation of integrated development projects. Lack of close coordination among agencies concerned with agriculture, forestry, commerce, health, nutrition, education, and other social services, increases the likelihood of unsustainable development. This lack of coordination has been partially attributed to highly centralized government in many countries.

2.3 Donors

Funding commitments

Donor's commitments to project financing are usually for periods of 2 or 3 years. Such a policy does not allow long-term project planning or the implementation of an effective community based development approach.

Furthermore, few projects are allocated specific funding for a preparatory phase which would include the collection of socio-economic information, identification of gender-specific development needs and carrying out pilot activities. These three activities are necessary to enable the identification of more specific activities related to community needs.

Follow-up responsibilities

Decisions with regard to the follow-up responsibilities of donors and host governments after the completion of the project are often not taken. Donors rarely commit medium-term low level funding to assist the community in the transition phase from high level project support to self-sustainable development activities.

Integration of development efforts

Integration of various external assistance programmes is not facilitated, particularly at the community level. As a result, duplication and overlapping of development interventions are common and may worsen the situation of some members of the target group, by, for example, placing additional time constraints on women.

3. THE PROJECT CYCLE: CRITICAL ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

Critical issues and related strategies, common to both fisheries and aquaculture projects, during the three main stages of the project cycle, are discussed in this chapter.

3.1 Project identification and formulation

Information

National and regional gender-disaggregated data as well as key socio-economic data is often not available when project identification and formulation missions are fielded. Consequently, this affects final project design which may not adequately take into account gender aspects of development activities. For example, a credit scheme for fish catchers, may not be accessible to women if it is designed under the assumption that all fish catchers were male.

Needs assessment and community participation

Needs assessment and associated constraints analysis have often not been carried out with the full participation of the community. This has led to needs being perceived by the project formulators rather than the community. For example, in aquaculture projects, women may not necessarily perceive fish farming to be in their interests, although project formulators assume that they should become fish pond owners in order to increase their incomes and access to cheap fish.

Impact assessment

Potential short-term and long-term positive or negative impacts of project activities on practical and strategic gender needs, have often not been identified . Positive impacts may include improving women's decision-making powers whilst negative impacts may include increasing conflict between men and women in the community because women are taking a more active role in community decision making processes.

Target groups

The criteria used to select target groups are often vague which has led to the selection of the broad target group ‘women’. In communities which are socially and economically highly differentiated these ‘women’ are seldom a homogeneous group. Furthermore, socio-economic variables other than sex (such as age, ethnic group, kinship, access/constraints to various resources) are also important criteria for target group selection.

Often female-headed households are selected as one broad target group in projects, although in many areas, there are big variations between female-headed households. For example, in southern Africa, these households have been further sub-divided into three categories:

-   de jure female-headed households where the head is either unmarried, divorced or widowed;

-   de facto female-headed households due to male migration, and desertion;

-   periodically female-headed households which may be one of several units attached to an adult male through polygynous marriage, or households where male migration is on a seasonal basis.

Even within these sub-groups, other factors affect their access to resources besides the fact that, for example, the woman is divorced or an unmarried mother. These factors can include the presence of adult sons, residence patterns and remittances from household members.

Moreover, the identification of target groups is frequently limited to the project beneficiaries without including the participants in the strategy, such as extension agents. Carrying out a gender-balanced programme critically depends on the gender awareness and competency in gender analysis of the managers (project staff and their counterparts) as well as the implementers (extension agents). When these participants are not considered part of the target group, gender-related activities may fail.

Final Project design

Often projects are designed without a preparatory phase or provision for an initial socio-economic study and, as a result, are inflexible in terms of time frame, target group selection, and planned activities.

Time lag

The time lag between project identification/formulation and implementation can be up to 5 – 6 years. This can mean that project objectives and proposed activities which were appropriate at the time of formulation may be inappropriate at the time of implementation, since technologies, community and gender needs, as well as the general socio-economic situation can change.

3.2 Project implementation

Extension services

Often, fisheries extension services are given less emphasis than agriculture extension services, irrespective of gender. However, where a service does exist, the main focus tends to be on harvesting technologies, leading to the neglect of other sub-sectors where more women are involved, such as processing and marketing. Consequently, there is a general recognition that reaching women through extension services can be more problematic because traditionally, they have not been recipients of extension advice.

One method often proposed to remedy this situation is that governments and projects should employ more female extension agents. However, experience has now shown that the sex of the extension agent is not necessarily a critical issue in reaching women - good communication skills and sound technical knowledge are more critical. Nevertheless, there are obviously exceptions to this general observation. Examples of such exceptions would include situations where a male agent would be culturally unacceptable or where a new activity, such as fish farming, might be more acceptable to women, if a women was giving extension advice.

Extension methods which use a top-down approach, have not worked. Extension agents who are familiar with adult education techniques are usually more successful. Moreover, in communities where literacy levels of one group in the community (such as women) are lower, extension methods have sometimes not taken this into account.

Extension advice on aspects of community development such as health and nutrition have traditionally been targeted at women because they are usually responsible for these aspects in the household. Experience has shown that the inclusion of the whole community in these extension activities has led to greater acceptance of new ideas and methods.

Finally, in situations where there is a lack of a reliable, qualified and effective extension service, training members within the community has been an effective method to convey extension messages.

Approaches to involve women

Two main approaches are currently used by field projects to include women in their development activities: credit and groups. Frequently, they are combined. Whilst the factors affecting the general success of these approaches have been well documented, a number of critical gender issues have emerged from project experiences in fisheries and aquaculture.

Credit: Women's access to formal credit in many communities has been inhibited by a number of factors, including low literacy levels, lack of collateral, the absence of legal rights, gender-biased policies of lending institutions and limited access for women to these institutions. Sometimes, the credit requirements of women are different to those of men and do not fit in with policies of existing credit institutions. For example, in fishing communities, women traders and processors require working capital instead of a tangible asset such as an outboard engine, which can easily be reclaimed should the borrower default.

Many projects have tried to overcome some of these constraints but the schemes have been unsuccessful in situations where projects have failed to assess the economic viability of the activities, or to ensure that the recipient has understood the conditions attached to the loan.

Moreover, the identification of the credit needs of both men and women before a scheme is implemented has often not been carried out effectively or with due consideration to the capacity of the resource base on which the viability of the scheme relies.

Groups: The formation of groups has often been seen as a way to assist the socio-economic poorer members of communities, such as women, increase their ability to identify their own needs and, mobilize and share scarce resources. However, field experience has shown that groups have not always been successful. The problems are related to the fact that the identification of the needs of the groups, criteria for adhesion, objectives, pace of development, purpose and mode of operation have frequently been identified by outsiders. However, when successful cooperation has occurred, it has been when a real need and real benefits were readily identified by all members and tangible results were produced in the short term.

Sometimes, the promotion of women's groups does not take into account that women are not a homogeneous group in a community and are divided among themselves along lines such as age, wealth, social standing, and ethnic group. Gender is only one among several lines of social stratification and may not be strong enough for group adhesion.

Sources of conflict

Addressing practical and strategic gender needs can lead to many sources of conflict within communities. Most of these sources of conflict relate to changes in the access and/or control of resources or benefits, as a result of development activities.

The introduction of a new economic activity such as aquaculture, often means that shifts in resource allocation (eg. land, labour, capital) are necessary. This can lead to a possible conflict of interest with the existing owners or users of the resources. This conflict, which arises as a result of apparent or real changes in resource control may lead either to the unwillingness of women to participate or, obstruction by men who see themselves as threatened. In fact, the possibility of conflict is implicit in the notion of addressing strategic needs. Where projects fail to predict and develop ways for the community to deal with these conflicts, development activities may fail.

In fisheries, the entry of women into the harvesting sub-sector may also be a potential area of conflict especially if they are simply owners of equipment and not active participants. In addition, where these women obtain greater access to fish, the control over the fish may be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people, men or women, thereby creating conflict.

Projects which initiate activities addressing one group of women may also experience conflicts of interest between this group of women and another group of women. For example, addressing the needs of small-scale women fish processors through improved access to credit, may have a negative effect on their relations with large-scale women processors who compete in the same market.

Conflicts can also occur when project activities increase the profitability of one group of people in one economic sub-sector. For example, improved smoking ovens which lead to lower processing costs and higher profits, may attract more men with better access to fish and/or credit into the sector. This can lead to small-scale women fish processors being excluded or marginalised in a sector they have been traditionally involved in.

Finally, where access to institutional credit is improved for certain sectors of the community, this may disrupt traditional informal credit systems and also become a potential source of conflict.

3.3 Project monitoring and evaluation

An effective monitoring and evaluation system to assess the positive and negative impacts of project activities on practical and strategic gender needs has not been developed. The reason for this has been attributed to a combination of poor information, insufficient commitment and tendency to rely on quantitative criteria (how many women fish ponds owners?, how many more women fish processors? etc.) to measure project success. These quantitative indicators may not be able to assess qualitative changes in the community such as improved decision-making skills or improved status.

4. FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT : CRITICAL ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

The critical gender issues which are specific to fisheries development are described in the following chapter.

Issues related to fisheries resources

Access to fishery resources have gender-related aspects. For example, in many countries, women find it difficult to enter the fish harvesting sub-sector, although they may wish to secure better access to fish for processing and trading so that they can expand their businesses. However, project activities which encourage this development through expansion of the fishery sometimes do not take into account the possibilities of further intensification of fishing effort, over-exploitation of the resource and increased competition between individual operators, both men and women.

With regard to the management of the resource, often the responsibilities and contribution of women to decisions concerning resource management are not taken into account by communities or projects, because processors and traders are not seen as direct users of the resource.

Issues relating to fuelwood resources

In many coastal communities, increased pressure on fuelwood resources for fish-smoking and cooking, is causing deforestation and environmental degradation. As a result, fish processors are facing serious constraints in terms of the availability and time required to collect firewood. This places a constraint on the long term viability of their processing businesses and has a negative impact on the environment (deforestation, erosion, destruction of breeding grounds in mangrove areas). Projects which increase fish supplies by improving the harvesting sector but do not address fuelwood needs and shortages, may not only increase the time and costs required by women processors' to collect more fuelwood, but also place additional stresses on the environment.

Labour

In many fishing communities, processing activities and travelling back and forth to markets takes up a great deal of time and places a constraint on the time available for other activities. Thus, the opportunity cost of labour is frequently high and the introduction of new activities such as literacy classes or group formation often do not take this into account.

Inputs

Recently, development agents have realised that women are also interested in owning fishing inputs in order to actively participate in the fishery. This can be direct participation or indirect through rent receiving from fishermen and improved access to a supply of fish.

Technological developments in one sub-sector may place additional constraints on other sub-sectors, such as processing, which may not be able to cope with increased fish supplies.

Credit

One of the biggest constraints to fisheries development has been identified as access to, and availability of credit in all fisheries sub-sectors. Most women in fishing communities have greater difficulties in obtaining formal credit than men for reasons which have been described in Chapter 4.

In general, credit is required by women to purchase and/or gain access to a supply of fish for processing and/or trading. Where husbands are boatowners or fishermen, there is no guarantee that his wife or wives will have access to his supply of fish, unless they are able to provide credit for his operational expenses. Poor access to formal and informal credit can place a significant constraint on the ability of women to expand their businesses.

Development activities which increase credit requirements of fishermen, may therefore have a negative impact on women processors and intra-household relations.

Project Staff

The effectiveness of project activities in reaching women and addressing gender concerns in fishing communities has been strengthened by the appointment of women-in-development officers. In cases where women's needs have been previously neglected, this has contributed significantly to women's participation and benefit from project activities.

5. AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT : CRITICAL ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

The critical gender issues which are specific to aquaculture development are described in the following chapter.

5.1 Access to and control over resources

The issues of access to and control over resources necessary for aquaculture is critical in determining whether women can participate in aquaculture. It is important to point out that those that have access to resources, may not be the same as those that have control over these resources.

Land

In most areas in Africa, women have difficulty in gaining access to land. Land is traditionally allocated to, and inherited by men in patrilineal societies. Even in matrilineal societies, the pattern of land allocation and inheritance has been changing and now mostly follows the male line. Depending on the activity(ies) they wish to undertake, women can obtain usufruct over land through their husband or relatives, who remain the owners and accordingly take decisions about it's use. Therefore, this tenure situation creates uncertainty for women who want to invest in aquaculture.

Labour and time

In general, it is easier for men to cope with the extra work involved in fish farming since their labour requirements are seasonal. Women find it more difficult to devote time to fish farming because they are usually assigned household duties, which are repetitive and time consuming. Therefore women's spare time is a scarce resource, a factor often not taken into account when calculating the opportunity costs of a new activity like fish farming. Moreover, female-headed households often have an extra disadvantage, because they find it difficult to obtain access to male labour for pond construction.

An alternative to using own labour or family labour is to employ labour. This option is only available to the small proportion of women in rural communties who can afford to pay for such labour.

Credit

Extending credit to women or men farmers can be a disservice to them, because farmers may be burdened with debt obligations and lenders faced with a difficult debt collection problem. However, where the preconditions for the effective use of credit exist or are created, such schemes may be appropriate.

Equipment for pond construction

Hoes are owned by most agricultural households, but access to other farm implements (eg. shovels and wheelbarrows) which make pond construction easier, varies between men and women. Because men usually excavate ponds, women find it more difficult to borrow this equipment as they will not be using it themselves.

Provision of equipment on terms similar to that of a credit scheme is subject to the same conditions and constraints.

Extension services

Because the majority of fish farming extension agents is male, they often contact men as the head of the household. This occurs despite the fact that several studies have shown that women and children also participate in fish farming. This gender-bias in the extension service, has led to aquaculture being regarded as a male activity in many countries.

Transfer of information within the household, for example between husband and wife, is almost non-existent. Even in cases where the husband does transmit extension messages relating to aquaculture, women cannot control how much of the information is being transferred to them. In many rural communities, women also have less access to extension material because as a group they have lower literacy rates, which existing extension material does not address.

Because aquaculture is frequently a secondary economic activity of the household, the justification and cost-effectiveness of an exclusive aquaculture extension service is questionable. Aquaculture extension may be more effective and have a more comprehensive coverage, through agriculture extension services. This has been recognised in some countries, where agriculture extension agents have been trained in basic aquaculture.

Fingerlings

Men generally have closer contacts with extension agents than women, and consequently have easier access to fingerlings. In situations where there is a shortage of government-supplied fingerlings, women will have to buy them from other fish farmers who usually charge higher prices than the official government price.

5.2 Access to, and control over benefits

Access to, and control over the benefits derived from the aquaculture refer to both quantitative (fish and cash income) and qualitative benefits (eg. household food security). As with resources, it is important to differentiate between the access to and control over benefits from aquaculture. Therefore, in terms of gender issues, the benefits to the household from aquaculture may not accrue to some members, such as women.

Although fish ponds may be owned by the male household head, household members often work together in fish farming . In this context, women's access to, and control over benefits from aquaculture should be seen in the light of their contribution to the fish farming activities of their husbands.

Quantitative benefits

Fish from ponds is usually partially consumed within the family. In some countries the decision to eat fish from the pond(s) is taken jointly by husband and wife.

Decisions concerning distribution of fish outside the household are usually taken by the owner of the fish pond. As owners are usually men, their wives will rarely have control over the use of the money obtained through the sales of fish although they often benefit from the proceeds of fish. For example, in cases where the revenue is substantial or a wife contributed in terms of labour, a husband may buy/barter goods for household use, or buy something for her.

Qualitative benefits

Aquaculture may benefit the household in terms of overall household food security. However, access to and control over these benefits may be unequal and there may be changes in the nutritional status of different household members, such as men, women and children.

Aquaculture may also increase the value of land in cases where it is carried out, especially on land previously considered to have no other worthwhile use.

Control of the income generated by aquaculture may have implications for both expenditure responsibilities and access to resources within the household, particularly between husband and wife. There may also be changes in the relative status of men and women within the household following changes in cash income.

6. FOLLOW-UP ACTION

The follow-up described in this chapter relates to actions that can be undertaken by FAO, either through the Fisheries Department, Regional Offices or, global, regional and national programmes.