The USAID Fish Right Program that covers the Calamianes Island Group, Visayan Sea, and South Negros will end this month of March, which also happens to be Women’s Month.
The program used the ecosystem approach to fisheries management that started in 2018 to promote sustainable fisheries. The aim was to balance human well-being and ecosystem quality through good governance, with the support of multiple stakeholders.
Silliman University is a partner institution for the South Negros of the Fish Right program, with Dr. Ben Malayang III as principal investigator, covering Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental to Cauayan in Negros Occidental.
One of the projects of SU-South Negros Fish Right, which is worthy of highlighting in celebrating Women’s Month is the Fish Tiangge.
I coordinated this initiative together with two women–Mylah Bomediano and Jerrydith Alpuerto. It has evolved from an adaptive response to the pandemic, to a platform that promotes sustainable fishing and trading with the active participation of empowered women.
Undeniably, women comprise one sector of the fishing industry, but their role is often invisible or taken for granted because many perceive fishing as the domain of men. But several studies indicated otherwise when we examine the whole aspects of the industry. 
Although the involvement of women in actual fishing is well-documented, they are more visible in post-harvest activities such as fish trading and processing. As such, women are also affected by disasters that would happen to the industry.
During the height of the CoViD-19 pandemic, the fisheries sector suffered heavily due to lockdowns and travel restrictions that closed fishing ports and public markets. Fishers and fish traders experienced health and economic disasters when vaccines were unavailable. The uncertainty of the condition added to their woes of being unable to provide for their families, which was made difficult by declining fisheries, as a direct consequence of climate change impacts and destructive fishing practices.
The SU-South Negros Fish Right, through its Technology Business Incubation Office, designed a Facebook-based platform called Fish Tiangge to assist them. The platform virtually connected fish traders and consumers in Dumaguete City that limited their physical contact and reduce viral transmission.
This initiative later expanded to the southern part of Negros Oriental through the fishers’ associations. The Dr. Mariano Lao Innovation, Creation, & Invention Laboratory gave them gadgets and internet access to participate in the Fish Tiangge.
Through time, online transactions reduced when the the health conditions improved after the government’s massive vaccinations, and the restrictions on spatial mobility eventually relaxed.
In response, we clustered the wives of fishing households with five members each, and organized 16 clusters to date. They were trained in financial management and value-adding to equip them with fish consolidation and processing skills.
Faculty of Silliman University Nutrition and Dietetics Department conducted the training on processing new products such as fish meatballs, lumpia, siomai, and siopao.
The SU-South Negros Fish Right loaned to the women clusters a start-up capital of P5,000 each, funded from the DCCCO Multipurpose Cooperative, US-based Silliman alumni, the Dr. Mariano Lao ICIL, and the Bayawan City Fisheries & Aquatic Resources Management Committee greatly helped the clusters start their operation.
The only condition was for the clusters to pay back the start-up capital after profiting from their new ventures, for use by other newly-organized clusters. Three clusters have been recipients of other women clusters.
Meanwhile, the Department of Trade & Industry provided the needed cooking utensils to 10 women clusters.
Some women clusters engaged only in fish consolidation or fish processing, others both, depending on the supply of fish and their capacity.
Since they purchased fish from their husbands, neighbors, and other local fishers, this ensured them a market controlled by middle buyers and financiers. Those also engaged in fish processing peddled their products around the neighborhood.
There is value added to the act of processing fish, which increases the cost of even low-grade fish, and during months when fish catch is abundant and can only sell at cheap prices.
Through self-help, while promoting self-worth after assisting other women, this initiative had also hoped to deconstruct the emerging ayuda consciousness among the people expecting cash assistance from government in every crisis situation.
The women clusters also gained confidence to earn for their respective families, and developed community awareness against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
They likewise promoted efforts to address climate change impacts on fisheries and their livelihoods. Some women actively engaged in coastal clean-up, monitored their marine protected areas, and reported IUU fishing.
But not all women clusters similarly performed and sustained their operations to adapt and recover from the adverse effects of the crises due to the impacts of climate change on fisheries and the pandemic on the fishing industry.
The clusters were found to have different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats due to diversity in personal, familial, and community backgrounds. Eventually, some cluster members became inactive, burdened by their other domestic tasks like attending to the needs of their children, their other livelihood activities, and other responsibilities.
Despite the odds, the march for women’s empowerment in the fishery sector and beyond SU-South Negros Fish Right must continue and be celebrated not only this month. The women need the support of the community, the local government units, the academe, and other private organizations in their advocacy for sustainable fisheries and livelihoods.
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Author’s email: enriquegoracion@su.edu.ph
