Women Empowerment for Improved Small- Scale Fisheries Development in Togo

Abstract

Women dominates (60%) the Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) of Togo which would serve as a valid conduit to empower them and reduce poverty. However, their participation across the small-scale fisheries value chain is disadvantaged by social barriers which generates many challenges and inequalities in access to material, financial and natural resources as also witnessed in other part of the world. Thus, women are consigned to the post-harvest segment of the fish value chain where they continue to experience challenges including, but not limited to acute lack of financial resources to acquire catch and for the subsequent disposal by marketing to eke-out a living. It is against this context that the goal of the study is to propose a logical pathway to empowering Togolese womenfolk in small-scale fisheries for strong participation to meet the full potential of the sub-sector (especially significant poverty reduction and households wellbeing). Concrete steps or objectives towards the goal include; to develop modalities for building the capacity of women in order to instill a sense of confidence for negotiation and management decision making; and to provide a contextualised framework for building an empowered and resilient women groups with reliable access to finance. In doing so, we used the expanded definition of the fish value chain (ranging from participation in access to resource negotiations onto disposal of the fish product by marketing) to assess women's participation and socio-economic performance as well as the challenges and opportunities for empowerment therein. The participatory field study defined women's current status and the status to which they aspire as buttressed by international good practices such as; the code of conduct of responsible fisheries; the small-scale fisheries guidelines and the sustainable development goals as they relate to women. The "Theory of Change" conceptual framework was then applied to determine the needed logical processes to empower Togolese women in the small-scale fisheries value chain for poverty reduction. Some 71% of the sample confirmed an ineffective inclusion of women in access to fisheries resource decision making. Results also confirmed that women face many challenges such as limited access to finance, social restrictions, limited ownership of fishing equipment and inadequate post-harvest infrastructure. For example, 90% of women do not participate in any form of capture operations owing to social restrictions such as cultural norms and taboos. Consequently, the hypothesis that Togolese women have the required means to fully participate in SSF and wholly contribute to poverty reduction and household wellbeing is rejected. It is critical that strong participation of women is ensured facilitated by an official co-management plan and projects dedicate to women issues. Deconstructing taboos and barriers to participation will reduce male dominance in the value chain and allow ample space for women's participation.