1) Interest in gender issues in aquaculture and fisheries has fluctuated over time, with periods of increased attention followed by decreased focus when funding dries up. 2) Past approaches have often focused only on women, ignoring how gender also shapes men's identities, and have proposed simple solutions that do not address underlying power imbalances. 3) Truly gender-sensitive practices require considering fisheries and aquaculture as complex socio-economic systems and gaining a stronger understanding of how gender intersects with other social factors like class. Breaking the cycle of rising and falling interest will need conceptual frameworks informed by social science and gender education.

1. Cambodia. Photo: Heng Ponley, Kaing Khim
MERYL J WILLIAMS
@ Mekong Network for Gender in Fisheries
13th Annual Meeting
Nong Khai, Thailand
22 June 2012
REFLECTIONS ON GENDER IN AQUACULTURE
AND FISHERIES

2. Outline
 NACA and AFS gender activities
 Some factual background
 Reflections on the gender and fisheries
timeline
 Some personal views and observations

3. NACA gender action
Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-
Pacific
 2012 NACA Council decision*
 2010 Sustaining aquaculture by
developing human capacity and
enhancing opportunities for women –
chapter in Global Conference on
Aquaculture (with FAO, proceedings
published 2012)**
*http://www.enaca.org/modules/news/article.php?article_id=19
38
**http://genderaquafish.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/2012-fao-
naca-gca-procs-expert-panel-6-3-chapter-titles.pdf

4. Putting Gender on the Programme of the
Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia
 NACA vision, core activities suggest that
gender should be included
 NACA is an inter-governmental body – obligations
to address gender equity
 Women and men are important in sustainable
rural aquaculture
 Gender is an important dimension of all core
activities (capacity building, R&d, policy
guidelines, fish health and genetics)

5. What could NACA do?
 Systematically integrate gender into
partnership activities
 Stimulate partners to undertake gender and
aquaculture R&D
 Generate and disseminate new evidence on
gender and aquaculture for policy and
practice
 Mainstream gender in the Secretariat culture
 This will include developing staff capacity on
gender and getting gender expertise on board

6. AFS gender action
 Asian Fisheries Society gender action was inspired by the 1994
Cambodia and 1996 Mekong seminars, and the 1995, 1998
and 2001 WIF photo competitions (supported by PADEK)
 Dr M.C. Nandeesha was the instigator
Photo: MRC “Catch and Culture” newsletter 1996: Participants at the: Seminar on the Role of
Women in Fisheries in Indo-China Countries , Phnom Penh, 6-8 March 1996.

7. Five symposia on women/gender
1998: Asian WIF (Chiang Mai)
2001: Global WIF (Kaohsiung)
2004: Global GAF (Penang)
2007: 2nd Global GAF (Kochi)
2011: 3rd Global GAF (Shanghai)

8. More AFS gender action
 Website http://genderaquafish.org/
 GAF symposia materials
 Glossary of terms
 Posts on
 Research resources
 New reports, studies
 News, events
 Facebook page
 Alerts to posts
 Additional links, interactions, notices
 Google Group
 News items, alerts
 Options for discussion
 EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO JOIN AND CONTRIBUTE!

9. Influence and impacts
 Reach to experts globally is growing
 Networks, organizations, researchers use the
social media outlets
 Slowly improving the quality of research
papers (peer review)
 First to break the news of high HIV/AIDS rates
in fishing communities (2001 symposium)

10. Milestones on gender and fisheries
REFLECTING . . . . . . . .

11. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination
1975-9
Against Women 1975-
-1982 NACA starts as a project
1980-4
-1984 Asian Fisheries Soc. formed
1985-9
Rio Conference 1992- 1990-4 -1990 NACA created as an IGO
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fish. 1995- -1996 Seminar on Indochina WIF
1995-9
Beijing (CEDAW+20) 1995- -1998 Asian WIF
-2000 Mekong NGF formed
Millennium Development Goals 2000- 2000-4 -2001 Global WIF
-2004 Global GAF
2005-9 -2007 GAF2
-2010 Global Conf. on Aquaculture
FAO State of Food and Agric. (women) 2011-
2010-4 -2011 GAF3; FAO Special Workshop
Rio+20 Conference 2012-
-2012 NACA adopts gender statement
CCRF+20 2015-
2015-9 -2013 GAF4
CEDAW+40 2015-
GENDER, FISHERIES EVENTS GENDER AND FISHERIES EVENTS

12. Reflections on the timeline
1. Attention to gender in aquaculture and
fisheries goes up and down over time
2. Gender ≠ women!
3. Gender-sensitive actions are complex in
concept and practice

13. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination
1975-9
Against Women 1975-
-1982 NACA starts as a project
1980-4
-1984 Asian Fisheries Soc. formed
-1987 FAO Women in Aquaculture conf.
1985-9
-1986 ALCOM project starts
Rio Conference 1992- 1990-4 -1990 NACA created as an IGO
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fish. 1995- -1996 Seminar on Indochina WIF
1995-9
Beijing (CEDAW+20) 1995- -1998 Asian WIF
-2000 Mekong NGF formed
Millennium Development Goals 2000- 2000-4 -2001 Global WIF
-2004 Global GAF
2005-9 -2007 GAF2
-2010 Global Conf. on Aquaculture
FAO State of Food and Agric. (women) 2011-
2010-4 -2011 GAF3; FAO Special Workshop
Rio+20 Conference 2012-
-2012 NACA adopts gender statement
CCRF+20 2015-
2015-9 -2013 GAF4
CEDAW+40 2015-
GENDER, FISHERIES EVENTS GENDER AND FISHERIES EVENTS

14. Interest in gender - up and down
Tracing gender interpretations (1980s and 1990s)
 HQ (FAO, donors)
 Simple principles/tools vs inherent complexities
 Data for development vs feminist knowledge
 Lip service only to new approaches, policies
 Regional project (ALCOM)
 Demands for project impact vs HQ/donor requirements
 Collection of gendered data “safe”
 Pilot field projects
 Enrolling women as the “simple” solution proves
ineffective for all parties
 Gender is not just women; men’s gender
identities need changing
 Feminists often resist involving men too
 Men with organizational power often think only
women can work on “gender” issues
 Nothing changes, the attempts wither away

15. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination
1975-9
Against Women 1975-
-1982 NACA starts as a project
1980-4
-1984 Asian Fisheries Soc. formed
-1987 FAO Women in Aquaculture conf.
1985-9
-1986 ALCOM project starts
Rio Conference 1992- 1990-4 -1990 NACA created as an IGO
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fish. 1995- -1996 Seminar on Indochina WIF
1995-9
Beijing (CEDAW+20) 1995- -1998 Asian WIF
-2000 Mekong NGF formed
Millennium Development Goals 2000- 2000-4 -2001 Global WIF
-2004 Global GAF
2005-9 -2007 GAF2
-2010 Global Conf. on Aquaculture
FAO State of Food and Agric. (women) 2011-
2010-4 -2011 GAF3; FAO Special Workshop
Rio+20 Conference 2012-
-2012 NACA adopts gender statement
CCRF+20 2015-
2015-9 -2013 GAF4
CEDAW+40 2015-
GENDER, FISHERIES EVENTS GENDER AND FISHERIES EVENTS

16. Interest in gender – up and down
 When interest is down . . .
 Funding dries up
 Experts become disheartened (especially if their
advice was not used), and
 They go to other fields, e.g., climate change
 Gender and fisheries/aquaculture does not progress
 When interest is up . . .
 Leaders are not ready and don’t know what to do
 The search for (too) simple approaches starts again?
 How can we break the cycle?

17. Gender ≠ Women
 Typical “solutions” are
 Involving women in the activities and developing
women-only projects
 Collecting gendered data, undertaking gender
analysis – but not acting on the findings
 The problems with the “solutions”
 More activities for women may just create greater
burdens, e.g., if gender relations are unchanged
 Focusing only on women ignores men’s gender
identities that are important elements
 Gender-sensitive practices require changes in power
relations between parties – difficult!

18. Towards gender-sensitive practices
 Households are differentiated, not unitary
 Look at
 fisheries as a system, and
 aquaculture as a household economic production activity
 Gender studies are not based on a single discipline
 Need better conceptual frameworks
 Strong social science is needed
 Other social variables such as class, race, religion, age
define and condition gender relations
 Aquaculture and fisheries experts need Gender 101
education!
[Based on the Guest Editorial from the GAF3 Special Issue]

19. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination
1975-9
Against Women 1975-
-1982 NACA starts as a project
1980-4
-1984 Asian Fisheries Soc. formed
1985-9
Rio Conference 1992- 1990-4 -1990 NACA created as an IGO
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fish. 1995- -1996 Seminar on Indochina WIF
1995-9
Beijing (CEDAW+20) 1995- -1998 Asian WIF
-2000 Mekong NGF formed
Millennium Development Goals 2000- 2000-4 -2001 Global WIF
-2004 Global GAF
2005-9 -2007 GAF2
-2010 Global Conf. on Aquaculture
FAO State of Food and Agric. (women) 2011- -2011 GAF3; FAO Special Workshop
2010-4
Rio+20 Conference 2012- -2012 NACA adopts gender statement
-2013 GAF4
CCRF+20 2015-
2015-9 - FOCUS ON BREAKING THE CYCLE
CEDAW+40 2015-
GENDER, FISHERIES EVENTS GENDER AND FISHERIES EVENTS