Women's Vital Role toward achieving a Sustainable Ocean Future
Source: UNDP
The reality for women in the Blue Economy is undeniable: their crucial contributions are frequently overshadowed at best; unnoticed at their worst.
This reality brings forth a number of pertinent questions, most notable: How can development agencies, governments, private sector, and civil society organization mainstream gender into the Blue Economy seascape? And secondly, what does success look like?
For women across the Pacific and beyond, the ocean acts as a life-support system – providing food, resources, and jobs. Women are crucial contributors to the fisheries sector through harvesting and processing procedures, aquaculture, and seaweed farming. In many coastal communities, women comprise up to 50 percent of the workforce in small-scale fisheries and are often involved in post-harvest activities, which constitute up to 90 percent of the workforce in some regions.
As explained by Ms. Yasmin Rasheed, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP Maldives, women are also essential to the care economy that enables other Blue Economy-related activities like marine transportation or fishing. Women also often bring traditional knowledge and unique perspectives and skills to marine resource management and community resilience.
So where is the deserved recognition, one may ask?
Read here the full article published by UNDP on 31 May 2024.
The reality for women in the Blue Economy is undeniable: their crucial contributions are frequently overshadowed at best; unnoticed at their worst.
This reality brings forth a number of pertinent questions, most notable: How can development agencies, governments, private sector, and civil society organization mainstream gender into the Blue Economy seascape? And secondly, what does success look like?
For women across the Pacific and beyond, the ocean acts as a life-support system – providing food, resources, and jobs. Women are crucial contributors to the fisheries sector through harvesting and processing procedures, aquaculture, and seaweed farming. In many coastal communities, women comprise up to 50 percent of the workforce in small-scale fisheries and are often involved in post-harvest activities, which constitute up to 90 percent of the workforce in some regions.
As explained by Ms. Yasmin Rasheed, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP Maldives, women are also essential to the care economy that enables other Blue Economy-related activities like marine transportation or fishing. Women also often bring traditional knowledge and unique perspectives and skills to marine resource management and community resilience.
So where is the deserved recognition, one may ask?
Read here the full article published by UNDP on 31 May 2024.