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Practical Guide for Gender Analysis in Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture in Southeast Asia

By Susana V. Siar (Susana.Siar@fao.org), Fishery and Aquaculture Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand

The Practical Guide for Gender Analysis in Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture is aimed at providing guidance to SEAFDEC (Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center) Departments and ASEAN Member States in the implementation of the SEAFDEC gender strategy as well as human rights-based and gender-equitable approaches in the whole value chain of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in Southeast Asia. Program/project managers, researchers, and fishery officers of the ASEAN Member States (AMSs) and fisheries-related organizations including SEAFDEC are the target audience. The Practical Guide is designed to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). The ultimate goal of the gender analysis is ‘more equitable, effective, and targeted policy formulation and decision-making’ (p.6). Gender focal persons from ASEAN Member States, SEAFDEC Secretariat and Departments, and partner organizations were involved in its development through a series of consultation workshops. It is being field-tested in some countries in Southeast Asia with funding support from FAO.

The Practical Guide starts with a definition of gender concepts and then goes on to the steps for organizing, conducting, analyzing and disseminating the results of gender analysis. It is divided into ten chapters:

1. Introduction;
2. Rationale;
3. Gender analysis framework;
4. Gender analysis process;
5. When to conduct gender analysis;
6. Who should conduct gender analysis;
7. How to conduct gender analysis;
8. Gender-sensitive indicators;
9. How to analyze the collected data; and
10. How to disseminate the results of gender analysis.

The gender analysis framework follows the structure of Part 2 of the SSF Guidelines using five thematic areas:

1. Thematic area 1 – Responsible governance of tenure;
2. Thematic area 2 – Sustainable resource management;
3. Thematic area 3 – Social development, employment and decent work;
4. Thematic area 4 – Value chains, post-harvest and trade; and
5. Thematic area 5 – Disaster risks and climate change.

The Practical Guide recommends focus group discussion (FGD) for conducting gender analysis and provides pointers on how an FGD could be made inclusive. For conducting FGDs, the Practical Guide presents participatory rapid appraisal tools (PRA) suitable for each thematic area and describes the process for using each PRA tool. It also provides a list of guide questions as well as examples of gender-sensitive indicators for each thematic area.

The Practical Guide gives importance not only to the collection of information but to the analysis, validation and dissemination of the findings of gender analysis. It is an all-in-one resource for the what, why, when, who, and how of gender analysis in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.

The Guide is available at http://repository.seafdec.org/handle/20.500.12066/6149