INTRODUCTION Hall Arber Roles Women Fishing

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1. INTRODUCTION

Visits to twelve fishing communities in two weeks in September 2011 offered the opportunity to compare and contrast the conditions facing Senegalese women of Dakar, La Petite Côte and Sine Saloum who trade and process fish. In each of the villages or towns, the Fisheries Service agent organized a meeting with the leaders of the women’s associations. 1 The numbers of attendees varied from about 10 to 40 women representing the nested organizations of traders, petty traders and processors. While such a rapid appraisal could only touch superficially on the most obvious needs and hopes of the women, this summary will provide a depiction of the common characteristics of the communities, their similar critical needs, and the potential for foreign aid to, if not transform, at least to nudge change in a positive direction. Some of the most significant results of the September research, combined with results and photographs from fieldwork conducted in 1981, were presented at a Gender Workshop in March 2012 to invited female leaders of Senegal’s fishing communities. This report reflects comments made by the women during the presentation. Observations made during a swift, impromptu visit to Saint-Louis, the site of the 1981 fieldwork, has also informed this report. The main body of the report summarizes the major issuesneeds identified by the women and includes recommendations for follow-up research and action. Appendices B-O provide more detailed summaries of conditions and topics discussed at the individual field sites, basically in the order in which they were raised, though without noting the frequency of mention at each site. Appendix P are notes based on a visit to Saint-Louis in March 2012. Because this research was not conducted as a formal survey, there are topics that were not mentioned at some of the meetings. We relied on the participants to tell us what was most important to them, though we did direct some questions. Time was also a factor, that is, some of the meetings went longer than others and some of the women seemed to be more engaged by the process than others.

2. REPORT