Gender Narrative: Year 3 Accomplishments

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2.4 Gender

Gender considerations have been a central focus of the USAIDBaNafaa Project in project design and throughout implementation. A desire to address the needs of economically marginalized women in the fisheries sector and the existence of a nascent community-based organization the TRY Oyster Women’s Association, led to the decision to select the oyster and cockle fishery as one of the project’s focal fisheries. Furthermore, the project’s participatory, ecosystem-based co-management approach to sustainable fisheries management is an approach that lends itself to working with community groups, such as women’s groups, that have not previously had an opportunity to share their local knowledge of the fishery and to have their voices heard in decision-making. As detailed in the sections above, addressing women resource users’ needs in an integrated manner has been one of the keys to success. Access to credit, literacy, safety at worksea, value added activities for oyster processing and marketing, action research on aquaculture, skills training and education for their children and especially their daughters, sanitation and hygiene, and mangrove restoration are just a few examples of the diversity of activities that in combination enable these women to engage in sustainable resource management. With approval of the Cockle and Oyster Co-Management Plan in January 2012, TRY may be the first African women’s organization granted exclusive user rights for sustainable management of a national fishery and The Gambia may be the first African country to grant such rights to a women’s group. As expressed by the Executive Director of TRY in her comments above after winning the UNDP Equator Prize, the solidarity, trust, and empowerment experienced by women TRY members as they have worked together in their common interest to preserve the resources upon which their livelihoods depend is now beginning to be recognized and validated among themselves, within The Gambia and by the larger global community of which they are also a part. The USAIDBaNafaa project has been a key contributor to this very significant achievement. In the sole fishery, the project has also applied the participatory, ecosystem-based co- management approach that has drawn women processors and fishmongers into the co- management institutions and, thus, the decision-making process. For training activities targeted at artisanal sole fishing communities, water qualityshoreline sanitation work and climate change, the percentages of women participants has generally been in the range of 10 to 30. For WASH activities, it has been higher. As of the end of Year 3, 70 of the participants trained with USAIDBaNafaa assistance since the project began have been women.

2.5 Sustainability