The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has just released the 50th edition of its popular newsletter on gender and fisheries, Yemaya.
According to the Editor, Since its launch in April 1999, Yemaya has regularly covered gender issues in the fisheries. It has systematically documented the various forms of gender-based inequality and discrimination that prevail in the sector. It has also documented the steady erosion of the livelihood base of artisanal fishers as threats to small-scale fisheries (SSF) continue to grow.
The landmark 50th edition of Yemaya, dated December 2015, features reports from Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, Mexico, Central Ameria and elsewhere as well as notices, interviews and profiles, all related to the role of women in fisheries around the world.
The editorial in the current issue recalls the Shared Gender Agenda that ICSF had released in 2010, with wide endorsement from representatives of fishing communities and fish worker organizations from across the world.
Some of the points from the Shared Gender Agenda are worth noting in today’s context, the editorial notes. First, it is women’s labour, unpaid or poorly paid, which sustains the existing model of development. Their invisible labour subsidizes capitalist exploitation.
Second, specific forms of discrimination cut across all aspects of women’s liveslabour, sexuality and fertilityundermining their dignity, sense of self-worth and self-confidence. As a result, women have very little bargaining power to push for better wages and terms of engagement with capital.
Third, the existing model of development is based on the unsustainable extraction of natural resources. This leads to environmental degradation and erodes the very basis of life and livelihood in fishing communities. Similar experiences are encountered when coastal lands are acquired for state-led developments at the expense of people’s access. As the resource base is compromised, women’s access to productive assets is further reduced and their burden of unpaid labour increased.
One article in the issue predicts that if left only to the market, the current trends and their gendered impacts will intensify. Another article, from South Africa, points out that even as women in fishing communities are increasingly moving out of traditional, community-based occupations to seek employment in the labour market, the feminization of labour at the bottom of the supply chain, and the informal nature of the work, allow employers to flout all responsibility.
Another article explains that at the intersection of gender, fisheries and economics are systemic anomalies that mask the cost of fish production by underestimating women’s labour.
The 50th issue of Yemaya calls for suitable actions, starting with the effective implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). It calls for regulations to establish fair labour codes for paid employment, affirmative action for women’s rights of access to fish, and long overdue attention by fisheries economists to gender. It also calls for the extensive adoption, promotion and implementation of the principles of the Shared Gender Agenda in order to ensure women’s rights in the fisheries.
Apart from profiles, notices and a Q&A, the ever-popular cartoon series, Yemaya Mama, completes the latest edition of Yemaya.
Yemaya No. 50 can be accessed at http://demo2.icsf.net/en/yemaya/article/EN/50.html?limitstart=0
ICSF is an international NGO that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just,self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector.
For more, please visit demo2.icsf.net
2016 ICSF