Join this online event on International Women's Day to hear stories from women practitioners and academics working in the seafood industry.

Learn about the importance of women in the seafood industry, the impacts of challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change on women, and how gender equality can be championed in the sustainable blue recovery.

Small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture value chains are important for the livelihoods of coastal communities worldwide. Women play a pivotal role in small-scale fisheries around the world.

Close to half of the 40 million people worldwide who work in small-scale fisheries are women. Women dominate the post-harvest handling, processing, selling of fresh fish, packaging and marketing of seafood. Yet the seafood industry is characterised by pervasive gender inequalities and the work of women is still mostly ignored, invisible, unrecognised and undervalued.

At this Fish Night on International Women’s Day, we will hear from women working in the seafood industry, in practical and research roles, in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Our speakers will share their insights and experience of the roles and practices of women and men in the sector, gender inequality and women's rights. We will learn about how over-exploitation, climate change and COVID-19 have impacted on women's livelihoods and wellbeing, and how they respond to these pressures.

In the lead-up to the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) in 2022, this event will explore what needs to happen to raise the profile of women. How can we ensure both women and men champion gender equality? What commitments do we need to see and from whom? And what will a sustainable and inclusive blue recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic look like?

About the speakers

Editrudith Lukanga is a co-founder and executive director of Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO), a local not-for-profit organisation working in areas of environment and natural resources governance.

Kyoko Kusakabe is a professor of Gender and Development Studies at the Department of Development and Sustainability, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand.

Madeleine Gustavsson is a researcher at Ruralis based in Trondheim, Norway. Madeleine's research focuses on fisheries, coastal communities, gender relations and identities as well as the blue economy, the environment and rural society.

Bertha del Carmen Martínez Villalobos has over 30 years’ experience in seafood processing. She is a business entrepreneur with expertise in product development and marketing, research, and finance.

Cristina Pita (moderator) is a principal researcher and team leader in IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets research group. Her research focuses on small-scale fisheries, the impact of COVID-19 on small-scale fisheries and market initiatives to add value to small-scale fisheries products.

About Fish Night

IIED's Fish Night events bring together people from academia, government, NGOs, fisherworkers’ collectives, associations and networks to discuss issues around sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and oceans governance and to demystify complex theories and scientific findings.

The events also create space to share hard-earned lessons and are intended to inspire change to create fisheries that work today and into the future.

About attending

Webinars are online workshops that people can attend via the internet from their desk or portable internet device.

This webinar will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. For those who have not attended a Zoom webinar before, please read this guide to participation as an attendee.

The event will be recorded to be distributed publicly afterwards. By registering for this event, you agree to give your consent for this.

The information you provide will be held on our database to process your booking. We do not share data with any third parties. We may contact you in the future about other IIED events. Please let us know if you do not want to receive any further information from us.

Image: The Mshikamano women group based in Mwanza in Lake Victoria learn about the stages of fish processing. Here they are spreading silver fish on the raised drying racks before deep frying. Photo: EMEDO