TUNIS,10 mars (TAP)-Despite the wide and varied roles played by women in fisheries, their contributions to the sector are often not captured in official statistics and can therefore go unrecognised, reinforcing existing gender inequalities and potentially leading to inadvertent discrimination, according to a recent study prepared by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
Titled « Women in fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region: roles, challenges and opportunities, » this study covers five countries: Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Albania and Georgia, countries « identified as those with limited published information on this topic and thus best positioned to potentially benefit from additional research on women’s participation
in fisheries and to fill gaps in overall regional understanding.
The study reveals that « women play active roles throughout the fisheries value chain in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, including participating in pre-harvest activities like vessel and gear construction and maintenance, harvest activities both on board fishing vessels and from shore, and post-harvest activities such as sorting, cleaning, processing and marketing the catch, as well as in activities associated with running the fishing business, such as bookkeeping. »
Furthermore, women are actively engaged throughout the region in fisheries research and fisheries administrations.
According to the interviews carried out in Tunisia, « many women work from their home in the design and reassembly of fishing nets. In some regions of Tunisia, there are women who perform coastal fishing, from the shore (e.g. as gleaners or
clam collectors) or on boats, sometimes with their husbands and other times on their own.There are also examples of women taking over for their husbands to perform vessel-based fishing activities in case their husbands fall ill or are
no longer able to fish.
« Also in Tunisia, women commonly work as manual workers in the processing of tuna and sardines and many women work in fisheries related research and fisheries monitoring roles. »
« In Tunisia, in recent years, more and more women are taking on prominent positions as regional managers and fisheries wardens, or at research institutes, » the study points out.
the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean estimates the number of artisanal fishermen in Tunisia at 35,450, accounting for around 70% of the workforce in the fishing sector. Updated statistics on the number of women in the sector are still lacking.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique presse
