The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of Yemaya, its newsletter on gender and fisheries.
Yemaya No. 64, dated November 2021, features articles from Sri Lanka, The Gambia, Gender dialogue took place in Central America, issues of gender seafood industry, meditative reflection on gender equity and social justice from India, and posters released on World fisheries day from Brazil, Ghana, The Netherlands, and Thailand.
The article from the Sri Lanka by Kasandra Marasco argues that Women in fisheries in the North and the East region of post-war Sri Lanka continue to face serious safety and livelihood challenges and it recommends that Government can take practical steps to aid women’s livelihoods through setting up of child care services, daycare centres, develop legislation to provide greater flexibility in terms of working hours and help them with financial support to overcome household debt crisis.
The article from the Gambia by Beatrice Gorez and Dawda Foday Saine looks at the challenges facing women engaged in small-scale fishing and supplying fish through retailers. They argue that the dark fumes of fishmeal factories cloud the collective future of these women and their communities. Fishmeal operators go to Senegal and hire fishermen to fish in Gambian waters to ensure exclusive supplies for their fishmeal factories in Sanyang and Gunjur. The ultimate victims are the Gambian consumers, who have no fish on their plates!
The Latin American Gender dialogue article by Jacklline Siles and Neyra Solano focuses on a dialogue series conducted during the pandemic to explore ways to promote gender equality in the fisheries sector. The three-part dialogue was attended by 3000 participants fishing cooperatives, government institutions, academia and civil society organizations and pointed out how women were at the forefront of the response and recovery effort.
The article by Julie Kuchepatov looks at how addressing gender inequality in fisheries value chains can lead to a variety of positive outcomes, including environmental ones. The female processors lost three times the weight of their fish consignments compared to male processors due to lack of loss reducing technologies in Zambia. The quality losses often occur because there is no access to electricity for refrigeration and storage of fish.
The article by John Kurien is a meditative reflection about gender equity and social justice. The argument is that the issue of gender equity in the activities of the fish economy is therefore a matter of how we perceive them and the attributes we assign to them in the process of assessing all forms of labour. But in most societies these assigned gender roles also evolve and at times change radically.
The Milestones column by Ahana Lakshmi looks at the recently published The Gender Gap Report 2021 and argues that the gender gap is 68 per cent with the widening political gender gap in several large population countries. The article highlights that care responsibilities fell disproportionately on women, contributing to higher levels of stress and lower levels of productivity during the pandemic.
The Profile column looks at how Lilia Briones Bermudez became a community leader in Barra del Colorado, Costa Rica and how she acquired extensive fishing skills by fishing with her father. Vivienne Sollis portrays the picture of Lilia and how pivotal she was in the establishment of the Women’s Association of Shrimp Handlers and Processor of Responsible Fisheries Marine Area of Barra del Colorado.
In the What’s New, Webby? Joe Zelasney from FAO presents the details of a new web page on the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture launched by FAO. The page addresses the objective of IYAFA 2022 website is to focus world attention on the role of small-scale fishers, fish farmers and fishworkers play and the need to support them. The website calls for collective action.
Vandana Menon, in the Yemaya Recommends section, points out the films, animations and stories produced by Greenpeace and how they document the efforts of ocean protection. The reviewer argues that Vital Ocen Voices showcases the story of Madame Kokoly from Vezo community, a semi-nomadic seafaring people whose way of life depends on the ocean and how to address the extreme poverty her community is facing in Madagascar.
The current issue of Yemaya also carries the ever-popular cartoon strip, “Yemaya Mama”(Mama has the last laugh!).
Yemaya No. 64, dated November 2021, can be accessed at:
https://demo2.icsf.net/images/yemaya/pdf/english/issue_64/361_Yemaya_64_ICSF_November_2021.pdf
For more, please visit demo2.icsf.net