MDG 3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women

Because so many poor families in developing countries are headed by women, WorldFish designs its programs with the particular needs of women in mind.

The Center’s “pond aquaculture” has proved to be a highly effective avenue to social and economic empowerment for many poor rural women because the techniques can be practiced close to home at relatively low cost.

WorldFish programs also empower women by promoting their involvement in community-based management of fisheries. In Bangladesh, for example, women’s collectives have played a central role in implementing conservation measures that increased fish abundance and diversity in local waters.

In Bangladesh, women now make up about 60 percent of all fish farmers, a number of them highly successful entrepreneurs.

All across Africa, women are engaged heavily in artisanal fish-processing activities and small-scale fish trading, and many of the poorest families in rural communities are headed by women. Safeguarding their continued access to fish for food and income has a direct bearing on the well-being of their families.

Driven mainly by women entrepreneurs, estimates suggest that over 1 million tonnes of fish from small scale inland and coastal fisheries trade within and between countries in southern Africa, at a value of at least 1 billion dollars per year. The income gained from fish processing and trading provides women with a degree of social independence.

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