Empowering women in fisheries for sustainable food systems – project inception workshop
A Norad-funded FAO project currently starting up in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Uganda places women in fisheries in focus.
Group photo of the inception workshop participants ©FAO/Diana Glover
Empowering women is a sure way to sustainable food systems, the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Ghana, Mr Kingsley Ato Cudjoe, pointed out at the opening of the inception workshop for the project last week. The roles these women play in the value chain of small-scale fisheries should be recognized, and they should be actively involved in decision making processes regarding the industry, he continued.
Although almost half of the workers in small-scale fisheries are women, they are often made invisible, and rarely take part in decision-making processes. Mr Kingsley Ato Cudjoe also touched upon that many women have limited access to services and to technology that could ease their work.
– There is the need to encourage them to opt for better technologies which could improve upon their health as well as increase incomes to support their households, the Deputy Minister underlined.
Inception workshop
The inception workshop for "Empowering women in fisheries for sustainable food systems" was convened in Accra, Ghana, on 3-5 March 2020 and brought together some 45 participants, including country teams consisting of government representatives, women in small-scale fisheries associations, and FAO focal points. Representatives from regional organizations, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), FAO headquarters and other partners were also present.