Assessing the Impacts of Gender Integration in Ghana’s Fisheries Sector

Abstract

This article presents the results of an impact assessment of a component of a large scale USAID sustainable fisheries management project initiative aimed at integrating gender and strengthening the role of women in fisheries management in Ghana. The assessment is based on a literature review and qualitative field data collection. It assessed gender integration from three entry points: improving the Ghanaian policy environment for gender in fisheries, empowering women post-harvest processors, and engaging women gleaners in fisheries co-management. The assessment found that an important milestone was the adoption and implementation of the Ghanaian Fisheries Sector’s National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in 2016. Summarizing the impacts on local post-harvest processors and gleaners, the assessment found that female post-harvest processors have increased capacity, confidence, and engagement in fisheries management. Gender mainstreaming efforts have succeeded in challenging cultural norms about women’s role in fisheries. Women have been exposed to sustainable fisheries management and are better equipped with the knowledge and leadership skills to advocate for good fisheries practices, which they actively demonstrate.     

Gendered patterns of IMT adoption and use: Learning from action research

This paper illustrates the value of using an action research methodology to improve understanding of gendered patterns of adoption and non-adoption of Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) and similar gender-related transport issues. It presents results from a novel action research project undertaken in five farming villages in southern Ghana, a region where IMT usage is currently low. The participatory action research study not only revealed important issues around differences between stated preferences and actual gendered patterns of adoption and non-adoption in the particular context of southern Ghana, but offers a methodology which may have value in many other gender and transport contexts across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.