Women issues are largely overlooked when negotiating a fishing agreement, which reflects the general lack of awareness and data on their actual contribution to the whole fish value chain. These are some recommendations to make these EU-Africa partnerships more gender inclusive
Women play a key role in fisheries, and particularly in small scale fisheries, in all the countries with which the European Union (EU) has signed a Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA), either in Africa, Indian Ocean, or the Pacific. By making fish products – a source of proteins, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals – available at affordable cost to the population, including the poorest and those living far from the coasts, women working in artisanal fisheries sector contribute significantly to food security.
However, the traditional perception that women in fisheries are mainly active in the processing and selling of fish, whilst men focus on the at sea operations has influenced negotiations on the impacts of EU fishing agreements on African fishing communities. Since access to resources was the subject matter, the discussion focused on avoiding interactions at sea between EU industrial vessels and local artisanal fishermen. Even when the artisanal fishing sector attended fishing agreements negotiations, the representatives were fishermen and women organisations were nowhere to be seen at the bargaining table.
Women in fisheries contribute significantly to food security in their region, as they make fish products (a source of protein) available at affordable cost for the population, even for those that live in areas far removed from the coast. Photo: Aliou Diallo/REJOPRA.
The fact that women issues have been, and are still, largely overlooked when negotiating a fishing agreement also reflects the general lack of awareness and data on their actual contribution to the sector. In the ex-post and ex-ante evaluations of SFPAs, which provide a basis for negotiation, data on women’s work in the fish value chain are seldom mentioned. Consequently, during the discussions, very little attention has been given to how women activities can be protected and supported.
However, in the last years, African women in fisheries voices have been increasingly heard in discussions on fisheries management. At the occasion of the annual International Women Day celebrations organized by the African Confederation of professional artisanal fisheries organisations (CAOPA), they underlined that: “Women in the sector are directly affected by poor fisheries resource management […]. We are actors of sustainable resource management, just like fishermen[...]. We ask our States to commit resolutely to the sustainable and transparent management of our fisheries resources, to give priority access to those who contribute to the food security of our populations and to involve both men and women from the artisanal fisheries sector in this management”.
Mismanagement, leading to over-exploitation of resources, has an immediate impact on women in fisheries livelihoods: the lack of access to fish to process and sell. In countries like Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea Bissau, women fish processors have difficulties accessing raw material as, in the last decade, maritime artisanal fisheries landings have constantly decreased. Indeed, artisanal fishers face many challenges such as trawlers fishing illegally in the coastal zone and destroying their nets and unsustainable fishing methods by industrial boats, such as pair trawling, and by some artisanal pirogues.
Poor management of fisheries has an immediate impact on the women’s access to buy fish to process and consequently on their livelihoods. Photo: Joëlle Philippe/CFFA
In Senegal and The Gambia, women have denounced the competition they face from foreign owned fishmeal plants which process vast quantities of sardinella into fishmeal and fishoil for exports. In Liberia, it was women fish processors that sounded the alarm bell after a government initiative to reduce the artisanal fishing zone from 6 Nautical Miles (NM) to 3 NM. Women also consistently highlight their deplorable working conditions: in the smoke with obsolete equipment with no access to running water, electricity or sanitation.
Women organisations from Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, The Gambia, Liberia have pointed these issues to their governments, as well as to the EU, as the partner in these ‘Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement’. In their view, supporting women in the African artisanal fishing sector through SFPAs will strengthen coastal communities, and therefore contribute to the establishment of sustainable fisheries.
How can the EU contribute to promote women in fisheries?
Most actions to respond to women’s needs have been case-based. It is now time for the EU to adopt a coherent policy approach rooted in the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Small-scale Fisheries. Photo: Aliou Diallo/REJOPRA.
The EU and SFPA partner countries have generally responded positively to women’s call for improving their livelihoods. In the case of Ivory Coast, a dedicated fund from sectoral support has been put in place to help women buy raw material from EU vessels landing in Abidjan. In Guinea Bissau, some provisions are also being considered to give women access to EU landings. In Liberia, the European delegation expressed a strong concern about the proposed legislation to diminish the zone reserved for artisanal fishers. But these responses have been ad hoc, and it is now time for the EU to adopt a coherent policy approach to ensure women in fisheries issues are duly taken into consideration when negotiating an SFPA.
This approach should be rooted in the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries (VG-SFF) and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. This exercise can take place at multilateral level within Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) for example and at bilateral level when planning and managing SPFAs with partner countries.
The main areas to be addressed in that context include:
1. Ensuring sustainable access to raw material for women fish processors and fishmongers by:
Making sure EU fleets do not have access to resources that are vital for women’s activities. In West Africa, most of the fish processed and sold on local and regional markets by women are small pelagics, particularly sardinella. As these resources get over-exploited, not only women and their communities’ livelihoods are at stake, but food security is also compromised, particularly in countries where fish is a large part of the diet. In the agreements with Mauritania and Senegal, EU fleets do not have access to sardinella. This should be maintained. In many SFPAs, there is a ‘non-discrimination’ clause, which prohibits the granting of more favorable conditions to other fleets fishing in those waters than those granted to EU fleets, including conditions concerning the conservation, development and management of resources. The EU should put more emphasis on the respect of this clause to allow for effective protection of sardinella to the benefit of local fleets that are supplying women.[1]
Encouraging EU fleets landings. The EU should look at how these landings can be promoted, for the purpose of ensuring women in fisheries access to fish which is appropriate in quality, species and quantities. For this, SFPAs should include provisions for landings, but also the possibility of using a portion of sectoral support to improve women’s capacities to access (for example pirogues to collect the fish) and buy the fish.
2. Improving women in fisheries working conditions by:
Supporting projects and initiatives via sectoral support funds. In May 2019, African women in fisheries organisations gathered in Conakry and called on African States to take measures to provide decent working conditions for women in the sector, in accordance with their international commitments on human rights: “The issue of women’s occupational health and safety must become an integral part of our countries’ fisheries policy and development initiatives. Our States must ensure that our communities have access, at an affordable price, to the public services essential to the smooth running of activities, including women’s processing and trade activities: safe and hygienic waste disposal services, drinking water and energy sources. We also ask that our States commit themselves for the future of our children: we want our children to be able to benefit from nurseries and schools that are close to fishing and fish processing facilities”. Various pilot projects have been put in place to improve women in fisheries working conditions, while improved processing equipment has been tested throughout Africa, such as the FAO smoking kilns FTT.
Designing coherent EU development action. Even though successful initiatives have been supported with SFPA sectoral funds, a more ambitious coherent EU strategy that includes not only EU fisheries policy but also EU Development Cooperation policy could help disseminate and replicate these positive initiatives, in partnership with local women organisations.
3. Improve the visibility of women contribution to fisheries and their representation in SFPA negotiation and implementation processes by:
Ensuring the participation of organisations of women in fisheries organisations to the negotiation and implementation of SFPAs.
Systematically including women organisations as stakeholders in the evaluations of EU SFPAs. The analysis of the impact of the SFPAs should highlight any specific impact on women in local fisheries and the use of disaggregated data should be mandatory in all cases where it is relevant.
Giving due consideration in the use of sectoral funds to the identified needs of women, especially when part of the sectoral support is allocated to local fisheries development.
More information:
[1] On the issue of overfishing of sardinella in West Africa.
[2] Download this policy brief.
[3] Photo of the banner: Andréa Durighello