looking through a gender lens at social responsibility in aquaculture

LOOKING THROUGH A GENDER LENS AT

SOCIAL RESPONSIBLILITYIN AQUACULTURE

Meryl J Williams

717

8 June 2014, WAA2014, Adelaide

HTTP://GENDERAQUAFISH.ORG 1

CREATE, NURTURE, GROW

Towards socially responsible aquaculture – for food security and nutrition, or for profit and style

A gender lens brings key social and economic factors into focus

Two aquaculture value chains

Kerala mussel farming

Vietnam shrimp value chain


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Taking the WAA14 theme literally – are we talking about fish and business or people and community? Not just aquaculture in developing countries but aquaculture everywhere Relatively little knowledge available on gender in fisheries and aquaculture, and about ¾ of what is done has been on fisheries. Gender in aquaculture still a black box. Kerala mussel farming A domestic value chain where women dominate – but for how much longer? Vietnam shrimp value chain A complex and risky export value chain where on-farm and processing segments are highly gendered

Convergence on food system basics

Food Security and Nutrition Supply (sustainable, stable)

Access to food (price, local availability)

Nutritional adequacy

Triple Bottom Line Biological and environmentally

sustainable production

Economic success

Maintenance/improvement in social aspects

and Social Licence to Operate


Presenter

Presentation Notes

The points not highlighted are usually paid little attention – e.g., in Aquaculture Stewardship Council requirements, the only social element is treatment of farm workers; for food security and nutrition, access to food and nutritional adequacy are rarely considered As a minimum requirement (and occasionally a make or break issue), the “social licence to operate” is now galvanising the private sector to look at social issues Convergence of operating requirements for responsible aquaculture

Gender lens

No doctrine on gender, aside from the goal of gender equality To get the full picture, look at the whole supply chain

“Gender lens” brings gender into focus

Roles, powers, rights and relationships of people

People: gender (socially created identity based on concepts of masculinity and femininity), age/life stage, occupations, class, education, religion, ethnicity, ….

Uses multiple ranges: close-up (household, individual), commodity segments (farming district, factory) and telephoto (whole chain, sector, country, region..)

NACA-MARKET “THEMATIC STUDIES ON GENDER IN AQUACULTURE IN CAMBODIA, LAO PDR, THAILAND AND VIETNAM”


Presenter

Presentation Notes

- Gender lens to see an important part of the FSN and triple bottom line in aquaculture

Case 1: Kerala (India) mussel farmingA rare aquaculture value chain where women are the major producers

HTTP://GENDERAQUAFISH.ORG

Kerala mussel fry (nadan kallumakkai)Source: adukala.vishesham.in

5

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Note: although this case study addresses gender issues in India, which has one of the largest gender gaps in the world, I use a case study from Kerala, which has the smallest gender gap in India, and high female literacy rates, etc. However, Kerala also has a great diversity of ethnicities and religions and I do touch on some of this complexity.

Introduction to Kerala mussel farming

Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) technology, ‘70s-80s

Popularized from mid-1990s by:

CMFRI: training, technical outreach

Initially request by Mr Gul Muhammad

Gov. funding thru Self Help Groups ++

Research+development+credit

Women are the dominant players

~20,000 t production, 6,500 farmers (75% women)

Division of labour in farming


Source: Kripa and Surendranathan, 2008

6

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Mr Gul Muhammad was an Muslim entrepreneur who returned from working in the Gulf. Ramachandran and others have written brief but tantalizing accounts of the early stages of mussel farming development in terms of the religions and ethnic groups who worked on making a success of the enterprises, but much more research would be valuable before this passes out of living memory. The result of the work that Gul Muhammad started is an unusual aquaculture enterprise in which women currently dominate But although several studies have focused on the operation of the SHGs, almost nothing has been done to understand the women and their households.

Kerala mussel farming


Mr Gil Muhammad and helper, 1995

(l) mussel pickle. Photo: Trade India(r) Muslim women, 2002. Photo: Ramachandran GAF2, 2007

7

Kerala mussel farming: gendered divisions of labour

Men building racks, often funded by women farmers [ICAR, Goa]

Women and man with harvested mussels [Ramachandran, GAF2 2007]

HTTP://GENDERAQUAFISH.ORGPerna viridisImage: Aquafind.com

8

Kerala mussel farming: women to decline?

At first, only women were supported

Successful demonstration, uptake, expansion, and planning

Profitable and good use of profits!

>2008, support extended to men

Bankable enterprises

Operational space reducing

Women being squeezed out

Farm site rights not protected

[Based on Kripa & Surendranathan (2008), Ramachandran (2013)]


Women sorting mussels. Photo: The Hindu, 1 May 2014 9

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Women developed managerial skills, gained bargaining power, made financial advances and bettered the lives of their families and themselves, and gained greater respect with their families. They made the businesses financially attractive. By contrast, for other types of larger scale and more lucrative aquaculture, e.g., coastal finfish cage aquaculture [male businesses], the Government made provision for rights over cage sites from the outset. Women’s SHGs are not currently organized to fight collectively for their rights

What the gender lens revealed

Who developed and works in the value chain

Relationships that shaped the development of mussel farming

Rights and powers and actions that may determine the future


Lisa Paul (right) shows minister’s advisor (left) And CMFRI Director (center) mussels she and her husband grew. Photo: The Hindu, 16 May 2008.

10

Case 2: Vietnam shrimp value chainFrom small extensive farms to large, export driven enterprises


Woman small scale shrimp farmer Source: FAO

11

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Vietnam has much greater cultural homogeneity than Kerala, and, relative to India, has few cultural inhibitions on women’s roles. However, overall, it ranks 66th in the global Gender Gap report. India is 105 out of 135 countries scored. [economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.]


Complex, global, buyer-driven value chain

US $2b annual exports

Food safety conditions

Environmental certification

“Risky” – disease, species, markets, climate,….


Report cover: Environmental Justice Foundation (2003)12

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Women in Vietnam are considered to be more risk averse than men


Major land use changes under Doi Moi, decollectivization and market forces

Stresses on households, risk and opportunity management

Mekong Delta & NE – shrimp farming

Shift to more intensive, risky farms

98% owned by men; women work on/off farms in support (Confucian role) and as buffer for household

Women’s Union – weak in practice

Central – hatcheries – male domains

Processing plants – women on factory floor

[Based on World Bank (2009), Hong Anh Vu (2012)]


L. Vannamei farming areas, 10 April 2014Source: www.shrimpnews.com

13

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Women represent different % of labour force in different types of aquaculture; lowest in shrimp aquaculture, and within shrimp farming, %women on farm decreases with intensity of farm. Women seen as risk averse and large scale operations beyond them. Households tend to run unitary budgets in Vietnam.


Shrimp seed selection training for hatchery technicians, 2004 Source: hatcherydoctor.com

Women workers in shrimp processing plant. Source: INFOFISH, 7 April 2014


1 2

3

4

56

7 8

9 10

11Google image search“Vietnam shrimp value chain”


Presenter

Presentation Notes

The markets and market influence groups have focused greatly on the environment and food safety issues, but hardly ever on the lives of the majority of people involved. Majority of workers are likely in the factories but the numbers are not clear. But there is no focus on the factory workers at all.

What the gender lens revealed

Who does what in certain parts of the value chain

Relationships between people and capital, markets and market influencers

Rights and actions and voices that could shape the future

Little is known about the gender and other social dimensions of this large dynamic industry

“new forms of gender inequality” created in shifting to intensive production (Hong Anh Vu 2007)

HTTP://GENDERAQUAFISH.ORGVietnam women shrimp factory workers.Source: Undercurrent News, 30 Sept. 201316

Thru the gender lens: some conclusions

For social justice to happen gender must be an explicit factor

Women are important but undervalued contributors

Change has gendered impacts

Kerala success attracted banks & more men but may marginalise women

Market drivers pushed women to the margins of Vietnam shrimp industries

The economic and social justiceimplications of change are ignored


The role of women in Vietnamese aquacultureha-thu.com / May 19, 2012 17

Presenter

Presentation Notes

These industries are dynamic, and constantly subject to change. Change is highly gendered. Gendered impacts – arise when change is change is treated as a competitive, zero-sum gain: Loss of women’s drive and expertise, social displacement; loss of tenuous rights by a large segment of the lower income population Women not politically organized Could Vietnamese women’s knowledge, labour and dedication have been harnessed and grown to help manage risk? Will it need a disaster to highlight how women’s talents can be better used in the factories? Men and households, and the industry all benefit when women benefit.

To really create, nurture, growGender equality must become an explicit

aquaculture development issue


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Not just fish, but people and communities