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