Youth in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture There is unrealized potential for decent and meaningful livelihoods for youth in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. Key messages This finding is especially important as youth are increasingly engaged in non-standard, informal and less secure • Youth is considered to be the transition period opportunities, and as youth unemployment rises.1 However, between childhood and adulthood, and as such successful engagement of youth in small-scale fisheries encompasses a diverse group of individuals. Differences and aquaculture requires that policies, investments and in gender, caste, class, sexuality and ability influence other interventions be informed by an understanding of the livelihood aspirations, opportunities and challenges. livelihood opportunities and challenges faced by youth. • Empowered and innovative youth are essential to the future of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Thus, it is crucial to understand how youth can engage WorldFish assessed youth participation in small-scale fisheries, with the sector to access decent and meaningful aquaculture and associated value chains in Africa, Asia and livelihood opportunities. the Pacific, drawing on the voices of youth in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Solomon Islands, • Issues of intersectional and intergenerational equity Tanzania and Zambia. A critical review of literature, supplemented must be addressed to improve youth access to assets, by interviews, was complemented by two empirical studies finance, knowledge and decision-making power. of the opportunities and challenges for youth participation Young women and youth from poor or landless in aquaculture in Nigeria and the livelihood aspirations and households often face additional burdens or are realities of youth in small-scale fisheries in Myanmar. more acutely affected, but differences due to other intersectional identities have yet to be fully understood. Three main objectives guided the research: • Efforts to improve youth engagement requires a 1. To assess the participation of youth in fisheries and coherent and integrated response from governments, aquaculture, and the associated opportunities private companies, development partners, research and challenges. institutes and youth organizations. 2. To analyze how we engage with youth in selected countries, and associated learnings. Understanding youth participation in fisheries and aquaculture 3. To identify (i) policy and investment recommendations and (ii) future research priorities, with an overall purpose The “diversity of youth” of improving benefits to youth from small-scale Youth is widely considered to be the period between childhood fisheries, aquaculture and associated value chains. and adulthood, but the defining age cohorts adopted by countries and organizations differ widely, generally falling between the ages of 15 to 35. However, defining youth by age 1 “Youth” in this statistic refers to the age cohort between 15 and 24 years. ILO. 2020. Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020: Technology and the Future of Jobs. Geneva, International Labour Office. http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_737648/lang--en/index.htm Photo credit: Hampus Eriksson/WorldFish alone can be misleading as it is influenced by many factors compounded by the lack of youth participation in most decision- including age, education, employment, legal and marital status, making processes. These depictions are then used to inform policies, and other intersectional identities including gender, sexuality, which often fail to recognize young people as agents in their own caste, class and ability. For instance, young people from poorer right and impose an external vision of how their needs are to be met. households often begin working earlier, and may even be the primary income earners in a household, convoluting the Polices aimed at increasing youth employment in fisheries and perception of youth.2 In other contexts where men typically aquaculture tend to focus on: (i) capacity development interventions get married at an older age than women, young men may be or (ii) supporting youth entrepreneurship. While the former approach considered as youth longer than young women. Thus, youth is can help bring youth into the labor market, it is criticized for focusing better understood as a stage of life that differs with context. on individual shortcomings instead of underlying mechanisms that exclude youth, including structural barriers and discrimination. These different identities shape livelihood aspirations, including Regarding the latter approach, the mechanisms by which support for perceptions of what is possible, opportunities and challenges youth entrepreneurship increases youth employment in fisheries and for youth. Our findings show that in Africa, Asia and the Pacific aquaculture remain poorly understood. there is a significant disparity between youth livelihood aspirations and realities. As such, youth unemployment levels The inherent diversity of youth influences how they engage with remain stubbornly high—30 percent in North Africa, 19 small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, and agri-food systems in percent in South Asia, 11 percent in Southeast Asia and the general. However, many livelihood challenges experienced by Pacific, 10 percent in East Asia and 9 percent in sub-Saharan youth are also shared with other social groups, including women Africa.1 This makes it especially important to understand how and others termed “vulnerable.” More understanding is needed youth can engage with small-scale fisheries and aquaculture on how, where and why these challenges impact youth differently to access decent and meaningful livelihood opportunities. from other social groups to develop better targeted responses. Barriers to youth engagement Data is sparse concerning youth livelihood opportunities and challenges in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture and the Youth face unique challenges in agri-food system livelihoods, benefits derived from participation, especially for young women. which are often amplified by other intersectional identities. Their Collection of this data is essential to provide a basis for improving opportunities are often concentrated in segments of small-scale youth engagement and can help better align interventions with fisheries and aquaculture value chains that are informal and pro-youth outcomes. poorly paid and, as such, stigmatized, or they assume supportive roles within household production. In addition, social divisions of labor can be strongly gendered—young men tend to produce fish, where they may assume some power but also high physical or financial risk, while young women tend to process and trade fish, where, despite their strong involvement, they often lack influence and are exposed to other exploitative conditions. Youth typically do not own the assets required for production, including boats and nets for fisheries or land for aquaculture, that are often transferred intergenerationally. These constraints restrict the access of youth to financial services and technical advice. Additionally, increasing youth enrollment in formal education, though beneficial in many ways, can reduce exposure to ecological and traditional forms of knowledge related to livelihoods in small-scale fisheries or aquaculture. In situations where youth do have rights to appropriate resources, they may have to negotiate power structures to gain access. This can be especially difficult in societies Regional context provides key insights where decision-making is dominated by the affluent or most Nigeria’s experience with youth in aquaculture experienced, as youth participation and leadership are often obstructed. This challenge is intensified for young women, The Nigerian government has invested in developing aquaculture who are often restricted further by cultural and social norms. value chains to increase equitable employment opportunities for youth and enhance the competitiveness of the sector. However, These challenges likely contribute to declining interest among less than 2 percent of youth engaged in agri-food systems are youth in agri-food system livelihoods,3 though the dynamics are employed in aquaculture. poorly understood. The IWMI’s recent study focused on the states of Oyo, Ogun, Better knowledge must underpin intervention Lagos and Anambra, where aquaculture is dominated by small- scale producers and further development can improve livelihoods Youth livelihoods in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture remain a and food and nutrition security. Higher youth participation in heavily understudied area. This often leads to simplistic narratives aquaculture was seen where fish demand was high, favorable about how young men and women engage with these sectors that policies and appropriate infrastructure were in place, and support do not accurately capture youth livelihood realities, a disconnect from social networks and opportunities to develop skills existed. 2 Blum R and Boyden J. 2018. Understand the lives of youth in low-income countries. Nature 554:435–37. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02107-w 3 Leavy J and Hossain N. 2014. Who wants to farm? Youth aspirations, opportunities and rising food prices. IDS Working Papers (Vol. 2014). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2040-0209.2014.00439.x Photo credit: Samuel Stacey/WorldFish The nature of youth participation depended heavily on their While fisheries do feature in the livelihood realities of many youth access to resources, resulting in two main participation strategies. in the delta, it remains a livelihood associated with poverty and low Youth who pursued an “investment-based” strategy engaged in social status. Meaningful attempts to improve youth livelihoods in capital-intensive segments of the value chain, like production and fisheries must recognize the importance of small-scale fisheries to processing, and could leverage strong social networks to access the poor or landless and the scope of agri-food systems beyond land and cover initial costs. Youth taking a “risk-management- rice. Knowledge about intergenerational inequality and structural based” strategy sought opportunities in pre-production, traditional constraints to decent and meaningful livelihoods should also inform processing and marketing, where they often used information and integrated planning of rural development and natural resource communications technologies to reduce post-harvest losses. management for equitable and sustainable agri-food systems. These participation strategies help identify the role of assets and Creating space for youth in small-scale fisheries networks in youth participation in aquaculture. Improving youth and aquaculture access to assets and finance, updates to transportation and power supply infrastructure, and capacity development around digital Governments, private companies, development partners and marketing are expected to facilitate better youth inclusion in the research institutes all play key roles in enhancing youth participation Nigerian aquaculture value chain. in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. Findings from the review and empirical studies indicate that to develop appropriate policies Lessons from Myanmar’s small-scale fisheries and investments (i) youth must be recognized as a diverse group with differing livelihood aspirations, opportunities and challenges, In Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta, poor or landless households (ii) issues of intersectional and intergenerational equity, especially historically participated in small-scale fisheries and agricultural regarding access to assets and resources, must be addressed and wage labor. However, inland fisheries remain largely marginalized (iii) the meaningful participation of youth in decision-making by national-level development efforts that prioritize rice processes must be facilitated and legitimized. production in the delta, which severely impacts fisheries productivity and intensifies local economic and social disparities. Addressing current challenges faced by youth The IWMI’s study of one fishing community in the delta Addressing the current challenges faced by young men and women found that the livelihood aspirations, opportunities and in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture is crucial to inclusive challenges of youth are strongly influenced by these historical development of the sector. Governments and development and structural inequalities. Despite the recent collective partners can help reduce challenges by facilitating evidence-based organization of fishers, small-scale fisher households are still marginalized, as decision-making and financial gains are • land distribution or tenure arrangements that allow youth to dominated by a few large-scale fishers. Although youth aspire access productive natural resources; to alternative and more profitable livelihoods, especially as • establishment of cooperatives that improve youth access to connectivity to urban areas increases, issues of intergenerational land and water rights, inputs, markets and financial services; poverty and marginalization4 continue to shape access to education and other employment opportunities. • updates to curricula and training tools and the creation of relevant positions in higher education; Traditional gendered norms and identities are another important • development and enforcement of protections from determinant of livelihood aspirations and realities in the delta. For exploitative employment conditions; many young women, livelihood opportunities have transitioned from rural wage labor to urban garment factories. Though urban • formation of organisations that create a formal pathway for employment has its own risks and challenges, livelihood opportunities youth to engage in decision-making processes. for many young men remain rural, often in opposition to their aspirations, and increasingly precarious in neighboring fisheries. Moving forward, it is important to understand how increasingly liberalized and globalized economies may pose new and evolving challenges for youth participation. Developing opportunities for youth Creating decent and meaningful opportunities for youth will require collective action by governments and private companies. We find particular potential in • downstream segments of the value chain, including processing, value addition and trading, that do not require assets needed for production. In some cases, processing and value addition can be done from home, which may facilitate greater inclusion of young women or more stability in times of crisis (e.g. COVID-19); • a thriving aquaculture sector, as it generally contributes to non-seasonal employment generation for youth.5 However, support for the sector, government and otherwise, must be inclusive of small-scale farms and farms that largely employ young women and men. 4 Kolding J, Bavinck M and Bene C. 2014. Small-scale fisheries: Importance, vulnerability and deficient knowledge. In Garcia S, Rice J and Charles A, eds. Governance for Marine Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation. Blackwell-Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118392607.ch22 5 Hishamunda N, Bueno P, Menezes AM, Ridler N, Wattage P and Martone E. 2014. Improving governance in aquaculture employment: A global assessment. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 575. Rome: FAO. Photo credit: Finn Thilsted Any action taken to create new opportunities in small-scale Closing research gaps fisheries and aquaculture must be assessed through an intersectional lens so that youth and their other social identities, Further research in the following areas is expected to help inform including gender, are not inadvertently marginalized.6, 7 efforts to empower and retain youth in meaningful small-scale fisheries and aquaculture livelihoods: Alignment with youth aspirations • Improve understanding of the diversity of youth as it affects how, where and why youth engage. Inclusive, equitable and sustainable development of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture may better satisfy youth livelihood • Investigate how economic, political and social shifts aspirations. Governments, private companies and research institutes at local to global scales, including in the post-COVID-19 can contribute to changing youth perceptions of the sector through context, change how youth participate and benefit from these sectors. • increased integration of information and communication technologies, perhaps through more sophisticated • Analyze how governance and policies impact record keeping, the creation of virtual markets, and wider youth involvement to improve alignment with access to technical advice and training opportunities.8 pro-youth outcomes. However, not all youth have equal access to these • Develop targeted, evidence-based interventions to technologies because of high costs, unreliable connectivity address challenges and create opportunities for decent and limited literacy, issues that often place young and meaningful employment for youth. women at a greater disadvantage than young men; • the development of an enabling environment for youth To strengthen national and international discourses, the IWMI, entrepreneurship, including supportive policies and WorldFish and partners will continue to engage with and opportunities for knowledge and skill development. provide evidence to (i) the Committee on World Food Security’s High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition to While examples of technology- or entrepreneurship-driven promote youth engagement and employment in agriculture improvements in youth engagement exist, further work is and food systems9 and (ii) One CGIAR to develop meaningful required for validation of these linkages. livelihood opportunities for youth in the labor force. 6 Gray L and Kevane M. 1999. Diminished access diverted exclusion: Women and land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa. African Studies Review 42(2):15–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/525363 7 Al Rashdi KM and Mclean E. 2014. Contribution of small-scale fisheries to the livelihoods of Omani women: A case study of the Al Wusta Governorate. Asian Fisheries Science 27S:135–49. 8 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2013. Youth and ICT. Fact Sheet. ITU and UN-Habitat under UNDESA. www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-icts.pdf 9 Indika Arulingam, a research officer at IWMI, is helping draft the 16th High Level Panel of Experts report titled, “Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems.” The final report is expected to be released in June 2021. Authors This is a contribution to the following: Carolyn Fry,1 Indika Arulingam,1 Likimyelesh Nigussie,1 Sonali Senaratna Sellamuttu,1 Malcolm C. M. Beveridge2 and Nisha Marwaha2 Affiliations 1 IWMI 2 WorldFish Acknowledgments Citation The strategic brief is published by the CGIAR Research This publication should be cited as: Fry C, Arulingam I, Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH), led by WorldFish Nigussie L, Senaratna Sellamuttu S, Beveridge MCM and in partnership with the International Water Management Marwaha N. 2021. Youth in small-scale fisheries and Institute, Wageningen University & Research, James aquaculture. Penang, Malaysia: CGIAR Research Program Cook University and the University of Greenwich. FISH is on Fish Agri-Food Systems. Program Brief: FISH-2021-05. a multidisciplinary research for development program, designed in collaboration with partners and stakeholders, to develop and implement research innovations that enhance the contribution of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture to Creative Commons License reducing poverty, increasing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resource systems. Please visit fish.cgiar.org for more information. Content in this publication is licensed under a Creative This brief is one in a series of synthesis products published Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International in 2021 to share key learning, outcomes and impacts License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial from the FISH program. It is intended to stimulate actions use, including reproduction, adaptation and distribution of and investments into fish and aquatic foods to realize the publication provided the original work is properly cited. their role in the transformation of food, land and water systems in a climate crisis. We extend thanks to all the © 2021 CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems. contributors of this research and the reviewers of this brief.