Inside Pages Tanzania...2 Guinea ...3 Mozambique...4 Brazil...5 Malaysia
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Yemaya, No. 10, August 2002 Item Type monograph Publisher International Collective in Support of Fishworkers Download date 30/09/2021 12:44:20 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/33434 Yemaya NO. 10 ICSF’S N EWSLETTER ON GENDER AND F ISHERIES AUGUST 2002 From the Editor Dear Friends, in management plans and other policies, as much for reasons of equity as for Greetings! In this issue, besides articles sustainablity of resources and from Tanzania, Brazil, Mozambique, livelihoods. Guinea Conakry, and Malaysia, we carry excerpts from a recently Women of fishing communities have released report on the role of women been in the news in several countries, in European fisheries. as they take up various initiatives to improve their life and livelihood.We The article from Tanzania analyzes the have fished out two such news items experiences of two fisheries from India and Spain. development projects and stresses that integrating the concerns of women of And finally, as Yemaya goes into its fishing communities right from the very tenth issue, we take a look at its conception of the project has been an readership. At present Yemaya English important reason for the success of goes to 134 individuals and one of them. “Involvement in planning organizations in 78 countries, Yemaya does not mean that all women French to 57 individuals and participate. But it gives them a chance organizations in 20 countries and to come up with their priorities and Yemaya Spanish to 74 individuals and strategies at an early stage”, notes the organizations in 20 countries. Most author. An important lesson, often copies go to fishworker organizations, ignored. NGOs and women of fishing communities, especially in India, Brazil, In several countries, both in the North Philippines, Senegal, Chile, Spain, and South, women play vital and France and Canada. unacknowledged roles in managing on- Inside Pages shore work of the fisheries enterprise, The challenge for Yemaya is to continue including maintaining accounts, Tanzania...........2 to attract write-ups, especially from liaisoning with bank and port officials Guinea .............3 grassroots groups in the South. Linking etc. The report on women in European up with other newsletters in local fisheries highlights the important and Mozambique.....4 languages being circulated among undervalued role of women as support Brazil................5 fishing communities, is also an option to seagoing spouses (“collaborating Malaysia...........7 that needs be explored. In case you spouses”), and recommends the need EU...................7 have any suggestions, please write to to recognize and support this work. Etymology........9 us. It is evident that even if women are News..............10 The next issue of Yemaya will be not visibly playing a role in fisheries Film................11 brought out in November 2002. Can activities, it is important to ensure that Net resources..12 we request you to send us your write- their work and priorities are reflected ups by end-October? YEMA YA NO. 10: AUGUST 2002 Africa/ Tanzania I know. At Mafia women are now engaged in seaweed farming, factory work and shell collection. In this way Women are Capable they have shown that it is possible to find alternatives Participation of women in the planning stages of to the dynamite fishing that male fishers had been fishery projects along the coastal region of engaged in, almost ruining fish stocks in the process. Tanzania, has led to the success of these projects The government and communities have worked This piece, by Catherine Chando, is based on her together to counter the practice of dynamiting and to Master’s thesis titled Gender Roles in Fishery safeguard biodiversity. Planning and Projects: A case study of coastal region in Tanzania completed in 2002 As a civil servant working in the fisheries bureaucracy and as a Master’s student in fisheries management, I have often wondered why women’s position in fisheries seems to be so important within the household economy and so marginal in fisheries politics. Their contributions to industry output are poorly registered and recognized. Women have been identified as producers, assistants to fishermen, processors—predominantly involved in post-harvest activities—traders, and prominent actors in activities that are not directly related to fisheries but are essential for family and community welfare. However, the focus on the work of men very often overshadows the economic role of women in fishing communities. This leads to a relative neglect of their needs and interests. Fisheries policies and programmes have, as a consequence, focused mainly on the needs The big difference here was women’s involvement in and interests of men, ignoring the fact that women are the planning process. From the very beginning the engaged in fisheries. ideology and the structure of the project included women. They were included at the national level when Interested as I am in gender aspects of fisheries, I planning for the Park was initiated. When the plans for wanted to take a closer look at women’s participation the Park were elaborated, they were members of the in project planning. I consider such participation as an staff and were represented in committees and boards. important aspect of women’s empowerment. In addition, there were also positions in the village that Participation in the planning process gives women an favoured women, for example, development officers opportunity to influence aims and strategies and to and gender officer. Women were also called upon as discuss different alternatives given their situation. community members to participate in the planning meetings initiated in each village. This article focuses on the roles played by women in the planning of fisheries projects in the coastal region Involvement in planning does not mean that all women of Tanzania, more specifically in the districts of participate. But it gives them a chance to come up Bagamoyo and Mafia. with their priorities and strategies at an early stage. If they want to, they can use this opportunity in their I visited some fisheries projects in the Bagamoyo area favour. This means that women’s inclusion from the and in Mafia Island. In the Bagamoyo projects, both very beginning of a project is of great importance. women and men were not involved in the planning process; the projects were initiated and planned from The example from Mafia shows that, through a project, outside—by the staff of the fisheries department, the women in fishing communities can play an important community development officer, or by a seaweed role in sustainable management of resources. The farming company—so I will leave out this example. projects at Mafia managed to mobilize women; they were leaders of the groups and they were active The project in Mafia Island Marine Park (MIMP) participants. The success in stopping the practice of represents, in many ways, a contrast to many projects dynamiting could also be due to women’s involvement 2 YEMA YA NO. 10: AUGUST 2002 in meetings planning for the establishment of the park— The fact that women are able to plan their own projects, one could say that discussion /planning started at the therefore, seems to be an important factor that household level. This was a positive outcome in the empowers women. The best results were seen in Mafia villages of Jibondo and Juani in Mafia. where women were brought into planning positions. Women held job positions aimed at assisting women to A closer observation of women’s participation shows progress. The organizational structure of the Mafia that women were more active and easier to mobilize in Island Marine Park (MIMP), for example, created the projects compared to the men, and that a majority chances for women to be present at all phases of of the groups comprised women. planning and implementation. The position of the gender I also observed that: officer at the park created a greater awareness, and men in the island were able to accept the mobility of · Women were participating in income generating their wives beyond their households, in a context where, activities outside fisheries and were contributing given the prevailing Arabic culture, women tend to be to their family incomes from the profits coming confined to the household. out of their group activities. · Women, and some men, acquired and developed My experience from Mafia area is that if women are skills, particularly in conservation, by practicing more involved in planning and leadership, problems of seaweed farming. both women and men of many fishing communities can · Women from villages in the two districts studied, be solved. exerted some influence on women’s groups in neighbouring villages directly benefited by these Catherine can be contacted at catherinechando@ projects. hotmail.com · The women, having gained a better socio-economic status, found it easier to share their own experiences and learnings with the rest of the Africa/ Guinea Conakry women and men. They thus motivated others, particularly men, to participate in group activities. Fair dreams Women from Guinea Conakry benefited in many Lesson learned and recommendations ways from the West African Fair for Artisanally When women participated from day one in formulating Processed Fish organized in June 2001 in Dakar, the aims of the project—including, for example, Senegal increasing women’s incomes, enabling them to make a better living, especially for their households—they By Mamayawa Sandouno of the NGO, ADEPEG managed to create a female orientation already in the The women fish smokers of COFUB (The Co- planning phase. This female orientation seems to have operative of Women Fish Smokers of Boufi) impacted on the implementation and the activities represented the Guinean women fish processors at the carried out under the project, which in some cases also fair in Dakar. This was for them an opportunity for resulted in social change.