Poverty reduction

The last three decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the supply of and demand for fish. Global demand for fish has risen rapidly with rising populations and increasing per capita fish consumption. The rise in demand has been met by a rapid growth in production and increased global trade. The fastest growing component is aquaculture, whereas capture fisheries have remained generally stagnant. Asia is the leading contributor to this expansion, accounting for over 63% of total fish production and as much as 90% of all aquaculture output.

Poverty alleviation and resource governance are inextricably related. Mainstream resource management has been typically criticized by social scientists for the inherent power imbalances between fishery managers and small-scale fishing communities. Yet, while a number of mechanisms of collective action to address these power imbalances have been developed, they remain undertheorized.

The important contribution of fi sheries to human well-being is frequently underestimated. This report highlights that contribution. The report focuses on small-scale fi sheries and developing countries because the livelihoods of 90 percent of the 120 million employed in fi sheries are in the small-scale fi sheries, and almost all of those workers, 97 percent, live in developing countries. Many small-scale fi shing communities have high levels of poverty, and poverty reduction is a core focus of the contributing partners to the report.

Aquaculture is widely held to contribute to poverty reduction and food security in the Global South, but robust evidence is limited. Using nationally representative data from Bangladesh, this study analyses changes in fish consumption from 2000 to 2010. Rapid expansion of commercial aquaculture pegged down fish prices, resulting in increased fish consumption by extreme poor and moderate poor consumers and those in rural areas. These outcomes are closely linked to the pro-poor nature of national economic growth during this period.

Poor rural consumers benefit from Egypt’s aquaculture sector through access to small and medium-sized farmed tilapia sold by informal fish retailers, many of whom are women. In fact, informal fish retail is the main, if not only, segment of the farmed fish value chain where women are found. This report aims to inform current and future strategies to improve conditions in informal fish retail by understanding in more depth the similarities and differences in employment quality and outcomes across different fish retailers.