10%

Gender in the GEF Coastal Fisheries Initiative

GEF/FAO Coastal Fisheries Initiative

By IW:LEARN

April 29^th, 2019

In the 18th century, French political activist, Olympe de Gouges, highlighted a main paradox of feminism: the choice to defend women's rights and promote reforms through general norms, or through specific norms which would only be applied to women (1). On the one hand was the risk that women's concerns would be obscured by more universal issues, while on the other hand, women could be locked in a ‘women's ghetto’(2): having fewer resources and less power to address deeply engrained gender inequalities.

This debate resonates strongly in international institutions that work to enhance conditions for women through the practice of “gender mainstreaming”(3). Although gender issues are frequently introduced into normative policies and activities, it is equally crucial to ensure that gender is integrated in a practical, effective and smart way into all implemented programmes.

The GEF-funded Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI) strives to mainstream gender throughout the programme by developing a gender strategy for each of the three regional projects (Indonesia, Latin America and West Africa). Gender is a cross-cutting theme of the Coastal Fisheries Initiative, mainstreamed through various approaches across the regional projects, including the Ecosystem Approach for Fisheries Management in Indonesia and a gender-sensitive value chain approach in West Africa. Of particular interest is how the gender-specific analysis is part of a holistic process. The implementation of practical measures derived from the gender strategies aims to be effective at each stage of the projects.

CFI Latin America seeks to promote women’s participation in decision-making in Ecuador and Peru, mindful of the gender stereotypes that persist in the fisheries sector. To carry this out effectively, awareness-raising workshops aim to reduce gender-based stereotypes. Moreover, the project will document women's experiences as well as their good practices in fishing activities. This will contribute to knowledge sharing and also allow for replication of best practices in other communities. Particular attention is focused on the collection, analysis and use of sex-disaggregated data, recognizing these data as key information to understand the different needs, roles, challenges and opportunities of both women and men, as well as monitoring and evaluation of the project's gender impacts.

Woman in El Oro Province, Ecuador pulling boat to travel to the fisher. Guilianna Camarena/UNDP Peru

Part 1: Women from the ancestral commune “Las Huacas” island, Ecuador in the process of measuring shells captured during the day. Credit: Sebastian Espin Meneses/CFI Latin America

Part 2: If the shell is smaller than the standard, it is relocated in an special area of mangrove dedicated to the growth of juvenile shells. Credit: Sebastian Espin Meneses/CFI Latin America

Women from the ancestral commune “Las Huacas” island, in El Oro Province, Ecuador capturing shells. Credit: Sebastian Espin Meneses/CFI Latin America

Women from the ancestral commune “Las Huacas” island, in El Oro Province, Ecuador capturing shells. Sebastian Espin Meneses/CFI Latin America

In the CFI Indonesia gender will be addressed through knowledge management and integrated into the monitoring and evaluation system and communication materials to ensure that the diverse perspectives of both women and men are fully incorporated into the project. The Blue Abadi Fund will focus particular attention on supporting a gender-mainstreaming strategy, while also playing a key role in advancing women’s access to financial resources and contributing to equality between women and men in resource ownership, control, and use in the Bird’s Head Seascape in West Papua, an area of rich marine biodiversity that is one of the pilot sites within the CFI Indonesia project. Training workshops will also be organized on how to conduct gender analysis and mapping, to provide a forum to learn new strategies and share knowledge to address the gender stereotypes that frequently marginalize many Indonesian women.

CFI West Africa (Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal) recently organized a workshop during which participants reviewed and operationalized the project’s draft gender strategy. By modifying project indicators, targets and activities, they are now better prepared to carry out a gender-responsive approach to project implementation. A checklist was developed to plan gender-responsive interventions, collect sex- and age-disaggregated data, ensure equal participation of men and women and integrate gender issues into the monitoring and evaluation system. The need to include women, as well as men and youth, in different aspects of the project has been emphasized. This is also relevant regarding the need to have female and male gender experts to facilitate dialogue on the ground and to participate in behavior change that will lead to the goal of gender equality.

CFI mission in Saloum’ Island, Senegal in December 2018. Credit: Fatou Sock/FAO

Joint mission in Sassandra, Cote d’Ivoire on the importance to adopted good practice in smoking the fish. Credit: Fatoumata Ouattara/FAO

Woman smoking the fish in Sassandra, Cote d’Ivoire. Credit: Fatoumata Ouattara/FAO

Women awaiting the morning’s catch in Cabo Verde. Credit: Catanzano/FAO

Women in Sassandra, Cote d’Ivoire. Credit: Fatoumata Ouattara/FAO

Ilaria Sisto, FAO Gender and Development Officer:

“It is crucial for our work to start addressing gender issues from the outset of the identification and the launching of a project’s activities in order to ensure that gender is mainstreamed throughout all of its activities, with clear gender-equality objectives. Gender mainstreaming can never truly work if it is simply an objective or a separate component added when the project is already formulated.”

For more information on this programme, please contact Jacqueline Alder, or visit the programme website.

(1) Constantinides, A., and Zaikos, N. (eds) 2009. The Diversity of International Law, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Nijhoff.

(2) Charlesworth, H., 2005. Not waving but drowning Gender mainstreaming and human rights in the United Nations. Harv. Hum Rts. J., 18, p.1.

(3) Bianchi, A., 2016. International law theories: an inquiry into different ways of thinking. Oxford University Press

Footnotes

Header photo: Woman in El Oro Province, Ecuador, sailing to the fishery. Credit: Guilianna Camarena/UNDP Peru

Button Label

FootNotes

Header photo: Woman in El Oro Province, Ecuador, sailing to the fishery. Credit: Guilianna Camarena/UNDP Peru

IW:LEARN 2025 reflections

Looking back at our highlights and achievements

Read

Seeds of change

Seven grassroot actions receive $350,000 to protect the SEA

Read

FishEBM projects contribute to report on Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries

The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2025 highlights unprecedented progress in sustainability and science-based management

Read

GEF 7 Coral Reef Rescue Project

Start publishing stories like this

Gender in the GEF Coastal Fisheries Initiative

GEF/FAO Coastal Fisheries Initiative

FootNotes

Looking back at our highlights and achievements

Seven grassroot actions receive $350,000 to protect the SEA

The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2025 highlights unprecedented progress in sustainability and science-based management

2025 Highlights

Conjunctive water resources management, and transboundary cooperation

A Year of Transition, Learning and Progress