Gender and Fisheries

IMA International, in collaboration with UNIDO and Institute of Marine Research, Norway, have been working with artisanal fishing communities in Red Sea State since 2019. All this has been through the project 'Building institutional capacities for an ecosystem approach to management of the marine fishery in the Red Sea State (Phase II)'. This project addresses SDG 14, SDG 2 and SDG 8. Within fishing communities, women contribute by taking on supportive tasks like producing and fixing nets, and cleaning and processing fish.  There are also community groups where women produce products such as soaps, perfumes and crafts to contribute further to their households.  As climate change challenges and conflict continue to impact the region, improving Gender Mainstreaming will contribute not just to the livelihoods of women, but also the coastal communities in Red Sea State.

IMA International's Support

As part of our extensive work with UNIDO, IMA International have recently run two participatory workshops on gender mainstreaming. Gender Mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned actions, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels.

Prior to the training women reported key needs including further capacity building for advocacy. They were keen to learn skills in marketing their products and gender specific training in sustainable ecosystem management. IMA incorporated these needs into the training including; equipping participants with gender mainstreaming strategies and the gender mainstreaming cycle. Also how to incorporate a focus on sustainable and inclusive development; and how to incorporate gender mainstreaming into policies.

Tools/methods

Multiple case studies were presented on women empowerment and participants worked to develop policy briefs. These briefs informed communication and advocacy tools on gender mainstreaming ready to share with stakeholders. The workshop involved a variety of presentations, group work and discussion. Time was then spent applying the gender mainstreaming cycle to the current project stakeholders were working on. All of this enabling them to carry out a similar analysis on future projects.

Conclusion

Aside from the behaviour change and awareness raising of gender issues, knowledge, and ideas generated in the workshop are important. These will contribute to the development of a policy brief on Gender Mainstreaming and improving livelihoods of coastal communities.

Women's rights and gender equality take time to change, requiring persistent efforts and societal shifts to achieve lasting progress. Ongoing efforts in Sudan will continue to push for meaningful change.

Gender should be incorporated into all major development projects. This is in order to ensure exclusivity for all, increasing the ability of women to expand their future livelihoods. We look forward to our continuing work with UNIDO and seeing the way that fisheries stakeholders in Sudan increasingly involve women in the essential work that they do.