Enhancing the gender-equitable potential of aquaculture technologies

Abstract

Gender inequality constrains the real and potential capacity of women farmers to successfully adapt their farming practices in the face of climate risks or to develop stronger, more diversified livelihood portfolios that would enhance their and their families' future resilience to social or environmental shocks. Recognizing these challenges to women farmers in particular, WorldFish has been testing and disseminating two "climate-smart aquaculture" innovations in southwest Bangladesh, specifically targeting women to receive training and/or assets to facilitate their participation in aquaculture. It was unclear, however, whether these targeting efforts actually enable women to use or benefit from aquaculture innovations and how these efforts contribute to gender equality or other development outcomes. A research study was therefore conducted in 2013 to investigate how gender relations shape whether and how women and men adopt and use these innovations. The study considered the implications of these findings for who benefits from these innovations, their future use and how to scale out the innovations to achieve the desired large-scale and sustained development outcomes.