KIT is providing gender integration capacity development to WorldFish to help them implement the FISH Gender Strategy. This strategy describes how FISH will implement research that identifies and addresses the gender dimensions of barriers, opportunities and mechanisms for change in fisheries and aquaculture development.

Supporting WorldFish and the FISH CGIAR research programme

WorldFish is an international not-for-profit research center. It works to improve fisheries and aquaculture to achieve food security and poverty reduction in developing countries. WorldFish also leads the CGIAR Research programme on Fish Agri-Food Systems, known as FISH. FISH’s mandate is to increase the production and equitable distribution of nutritious fish to improve the livelihoods, nutrition and food security of poor households.

Building gender integration guidelines

This project has two primary objectives. First, it aims to integrate gender into FISH research by developing gender integration guidelines. The guidelines aim to:

• Serve as a resource to explain core gender concepts and offer guidance to effectively integrate gender analysis into small scale fisheries and aquaculture research in FISH.
• Support FISH researchers to generate reliable and scalable solutions to overcome gender barriers and enable equality and empowerment in aquaculture and small scale fisheries. This includes value chains and in relation to nutrition.

Training & coaching for FISH projects

The second objective of the project is to support gender capacity building of WorldFish and partner staff. This is being implemented through gender training and coaching of three FISH projects:

• Egypt, EWFIRE: Funded by the European Commission (EuropeAid), this project aims to socioeconomically empower women fish traders in Egypt. It does so through training in product development and visibility and by supporting community-based market development initiatives in Sharkia governorate.
• Pacific, Pathways: Funded by Australian Aid, this project aims to improve the well-being of Pacific coastal communities through more productive and resilient fisheries and improved food and nutrition security.
• Myanmar, Inland MYSAP: This project seeks to improve the production, nutrition and market values of small-scale aquaculture in Myanmar’s Shan State and Sagaing Region. It also aims to increase the availability of and access to affordable and sustainably-produced freshwater aquaculture products for disadvantaged people. It is funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

This work builds on existing gender capacity building work supported by KIT through the CIMMYT Gender Capacity Strengthening programme and the Livestock and Fish gender coaching project. It also builds on existing collaborations with WorldFish to support research around the impact of gender transformative approaches in aquaculture and fisheries.

Project results

KIT produced draft gender integration guidelines and three country workshops were rolled out in November – December 2018 to increase the capacity of WorldFish and implementing partners to integrate gender into their ongoing research for aquaculture and fisheries development. KIT is also providing coaching on the integration of gender into three existing research programs:

• EWFIRE: supporting the design and implementation of the EWFIRE baseline to track women’s empowerment through adaptions of the Women in Empowerment Fisheries Index.
• PATHWAYS: supporting three research packages around nutrition, livelihoods and community-based fisheries management.
• INLAND MYSAP: supporting research design to understand the current reach of aquaculture extension and nutrition behavior change (and how it is benefiting different women and men in the community through an intersectional lens).