FAO and Invemar host a meeting with platoneras from Buenaventura in Colombia

©FAO

On December 11th 2020, FAO and INVEMAR (the Colombian institute for marine and costal research), hosted a meeting for Buenaventura’s platoneras (post-harvest female fish-workers) to highlight their needs, the value of the fish-products they transform and commercialize, and the key role in their community’s food security and socio-economic development. The meeting was the result of a project supported by FAO and INVEMAR where they built the capacity of government stakeholders to integrate gender and nutrition into a value chain analysis and entrepreneurship endeavours. Similarly, the project mapped the barriers and opportunities to female entrepreneurship, in the fisheries sector, in Buenaventura and supported the formalization of an organization called “Pez & Pez” as well as of the platoneras, to enhance their connection with public procurement processes.

The meeting highlighted the need to i) generate spaces for collaboration between different local actors and representatives of the platoneras; ii) apply a gender-sensitive approach to sector analysis; iii) further the characterization of Buenaventura’s platoneras to understand how many there are in the region, even if working informally, and what are their characteristics; iv) strengthen all steps within the value chain; v) improve organizational capacity and access to finance; and vi) link the current mechanisms supporting the platoneras with social protection ones, either universal or sectoral to help them overcomestructural barriers to development.

This meeting is an example and an opportunity for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, particularly regarding Chapter 8 on “Gender equality” highlighting the role of women in the sector and Chapter 7 on “Value chains, post-harvest and trade” recognizing the central role that the small-scale fisheries post-harvest subsector and its actors play in the value chain, the role women play in the post-harvest sector and the need to support participation of women in such work, among others.

Link to the meeting: https://www.facebook.com/invemar.org.co/videos/414865539894359