Making a splash at the 9th Global Conference on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries
Though women and other marginalized groups play critical roles in aquaculture and fisheries around the world, they remain largely unrecognized and underrepresented in policies, decision-making and more lucrative value-chain segments.
This is one issue that the 9th Global Conference on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries (GAF9) will address when participants come together in Bangkok, Thailand, where IDRC and partners from the Nature-based Climate Solutions in Aquaculture Food Systems in Asia-Pacific initiative, known as AQUADAPT, will host four different discussions related to gender in aquaculture.
Two IDRC-hosted special sessions will take place on October 2, one entitled Measuring gender justice in aquaculture and fisheries: Tools & lessons from practice, and the other on Engendering climate justice in aquaculture through inclusive nature-based solutions.
The first session will address a critical challenge in aquaculture policy and practice — the failure to count women’s contributions and perspectives. There is a lack of disaggregated gender data in the sector, and stereotypes tend to depict women not as fishers or farmers but as men’s “helpers.” When policies and programs are gender blind, they can reinforce inequalities. This panel will offer tools for assessing gender relations in fisheries and aquaculture based on concrete cases like women’s involvement in mangrove restoration in shrimp communities in Indonesia and fish value chains in the Philippines. The session will then explore how research that engages women and marginalized groups as leaders and co-researchers can advance gender justice.
In the second session, participants will hear how climate change impacts fishing and aquaculture communities and how nature-based solutions can advance inclusive resilience. Across Southeast Asia, aquacultural communities face challenges like warming water, storms and droughts. Women and marginalized groups are most vulnerable to these effects. IDRC-supported case studies from fish farming in ponds in northern Thailand to marine fisheries and aquaculture in peninsular Malaysia will demonstrate how building climate resilience requires more equitable governance, access to resources and division of labour.
In addition, AQUADAPT partners will lead these two GAF9 special sessions on October 1 and 2, respectively:
- Gender in nature-based aquaculture: Evidence from Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, led by the Asian Institute of Technology (learn about the related research project).
- Community-led oyster farms in Fiji: A case study of gender-responsive aquaculture, led by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (learn about the related research project).
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