GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN AFRICA

The document highlights the critical but often invisible role of women in Africa's small-scale fisheries, particularly in post-harvest activities. It argues that gender-blind policies and a lack of disaggregated data lead to the exclusion of women from governance and economic benefits. The author recommends context-specific interventions, the collection of gender-disaggregated data, and the promotion of livelihood diversification, such as aquaculture, to improve women's human rights and economic security.

• Women are central to the fisheries value chain in Africa, particularly in post-harvest activities like processing and trading, which account for approximately 96% of their employment. These activities contribute roughly half of the 1.39% that fisheries add to Africa's gross domestic product.
• Women's contributions to fisheries are frequently undervalued or rendered invisible, often being categorized as domestic work. This invisibility leads to their exclusion from fisheries discourse and results in management policies that ignore key resources, such as seagrass harvesting in Zanzibar.
• Women in small-scale fisheries face systemic inequalities, including limited access to high-value fish and profitable markets, lower pay for the same work, and restricted access to decision-making roles compared to men.
• External pressures such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and overfishing disproportionately affect women. These changes can lead to precarious unofficial employment in factories or an increase in sexual and gender-based violence and transactional sex due to changes in resource availability.
• Effective policy interventions must avoid 'one size fits all' approaches and instead rely on gender-disaggregated data to understand the specific roles, remuneration, and work conditions of women.
• Livelihood diversification, specifically through fish farming and aquaculture, is identified as a promising strategy for women because these activities can be conducted close to home and typically require low capital investment.

APA

DU PREEZ, M.-L. (2018). GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Policy-Briefing-173.pdf

Chicago

DU PREEZ, MARI-LISE. GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Policy-Briefing-173.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=DU PREEZ |first1=MARI-LISE |title=GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN AFRICA |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=May 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Policy-Briefing-173.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dupreez2018gender, author = {DU PREEZ, MARI-LISE}, title = {{GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN AFRICA}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Policy-Briefing-173.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }