Myanmar’s Department of Fisheries took action on gender equality on International Women’s Day with the support of WorldFish, LIFT and the Gender Equality Network (GEN).
A workshop on ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Myanmar’s Fisheries Sector’ was held on March 8 at the Department of Fisheries in Yangon and was attended by 30 participants.
Department of Fisheries staff worked together with representatives from WorldFish, LIFT and GEN to explore what needs to be done to improve gender equality in the fisheries sector.
Department of Fisheries (DoF) Yangon Regional Fishery Officer U Tun Win Myint opened the workshop and WorldFish Country Manager Michale Akester welcomed participants. Presentations were made by Department of Fisheries, Research and Development Deputy Director Dr Yin Yin Moe, UNOPS Communications Officer Taniele Gofers, Wageningen University Gender Studies representative Dr Margaret van der Burg and WorldFish Myanmar Gender Specialist Lemlem Aregu Behailu.
The presentations informed participants about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG Goal 5: Gender Equality and about gender issues in fishery and aquaculture.
WorldFish Gender Specialist Ms Aregu Behailu presented data WorldFish has collected in Myanmar demonstrating that women’s participation in aquaculture lags behind men’s. She outlined gender stereotypes that limit women’s opportunities to participate as decision makers and asset owners in the sector.
Dr van der Burg said research showed that closing the 20%-30% agriculture yield gap between women and men would result in a 2%-4% increase in food production and worldwide this would reduce the number of undernourished people by more than 100 million.
Participants broke into groups to discuss what needed to be done in Myanmar to improve gender equality in the fisheries sector.
At the end of the workshop participants agreed there was a willingness to explore establishing a gender unit within the Department of Fisheries, developing a gender policy and exploring how existing policies could be made more sensitive to gender issues. Participants also agreed to consider conducting a training needs assessment related to women’s empowerment, creating more enabling environments for women to participate in decision-making at all levels and to consolidate research and disaggregated data on women’s participation in fisheries and aquaculture.
Dr Yin Yin Moe closed the meeting and said: “Today is International Women’s Day and this is very good timing for us to be talking about gender equity issues. We hope that our partners and our Department of Fisheries colleagues will try to work together to improve gender equality in our sector”.
The Myanmar Fisheries Partnership Meeting will be held in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday, April 13 and the group decided to add gender mainstreaming to Monday’s agenda for further discussion.
WorldFish is a LIFT implementing partner operating projects in the Ayeyarwady Region promoting sustainable growth of aquaculture, working closely with the Department of Fisheries.
