This online event on International Women's Day heard 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 on 8 March 2021, this event organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) heard from women working in the seafood industry, in practical and research roles, in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The speakers were: Editrudith Lukanga, co-founder and executive director of Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO); Kyoko Kusakabe, 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, researcher at Ruralis in Norway; and Bertha del Carmen Martínez Villalobos, a business entrepreneur with expertise in seafood product development and marketing. The event was moderated by IIED principal researcher Cristina Pita.

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