6 aquatic food system innovations transforming women’s livelihoods

WorldFish’s Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health, Aquatic Food Systems, and Vice Chair of the 2021 UN Food System Summit Action Track 4: Advance Equitable Livelihoods, Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted, shares her experience developing nutrition-sensitive innovations that are transforming women’s lives.

One in every two workers in aquatic food systems are women. Some of these women work directly in fisheries and aquaculture production, while the majority work in the processing, sale, and trade of aquatic foods and products. Women are crucial to aquatic food systems, providing labor, innovative ideas, and entrepreneurship. Their contributions are critical to food and nutrition security, gender equality, and multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

Gender bias, outdated assumptions, and the lack of visibility in food system policy block women’s full participation in aquatic food systems and thus hold back true food systems transformation toward more healthy and sustainable diets. COVID-19 has intensified many of the disproportionate burdens that women face, critically impacting access to job opportunities and nutritious foods. ‘Building Forward Better’ requires the full participation of women in crucial response and recovery efforts… Read the rest