Gender at the UN

Today I had an exciting meeting with the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome, Italy.

I met with Nicole Franz, Fishery Policy Analyst at the Food and Agricultural Organisation, to discuss their Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Small-Scale Fisheries. 

This important policy document outlines a number of guiding principles which national governments are encouraged to adopt to secure their small-scale fisheries.

These guidelines have been primarily developed for use in developing countries. But with one of the main principles focusing on “Gender equality and equity”, I wanted to explore how it might be used in the UK.

Other researchers have used these guidelines in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Japan, Norway, Spain and Canada (read more about that here), and Nicole and I agreed there is scope for understanding how they can be used to better support small-scale fishing families - and particularly women - in the UK.

Recently, the Food and Agricultural Organisation has developed an extensive report on how to implement the guidelines and achieve more gender equal small-scale fisheries across the globe.

They have also developed a video promoting the importance of women’s roles in small-scale fisheries which you can view below.

I’m hoping to use some of the approaches outlined in these documents throughout the Women in Fisheries project. If you are aware of similar pieces of guidance and would like to share them, please do get in touch.