Cancún, Mexico – Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Seafood and Gender Equality (SAGE) signed a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding to advance gender equity in the global seafood sector. The two organizations – leaders in addressing environmental and social responsibility in fisheries, aquaculture, and seafood production – announced their partnership at the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions annual conference.
The partnership will focus on engaging with SFP’s Supply Chain Roundtables (SRs), to provide them with the knowledge, expertise, and resources they need to address gender inequalities in their respective sectors. SRs, which are convened and facilitated by SFP, bring together major buyers and importers of seafood in a particular sector to work together pre-competitively to scale up individual initiatives and jointly advocate for better fisheries policy and management. This engagement will introduce SR member companies to SAGE’s flagship Gender Equality Dialogues (GED) program, which promotes innovation and workforce development in the sector by co-creating space for industry leaders to develop actionable solutions to address gender inequalities.
“The SRs have a singular purpose – to drive significant and measurable change to fisheries sustainability. We are excited to work with SFP and the SRs to explore the incorporation of a gender component to this work, as it has been shown that, by empowering women and historically excluded groups, we can achieve our goals around environmental improvements faster and at scale,” said Julie Kuchepatov, founder of SAGE.
Because the seafood sector is facing challenges on multiple fronts – from increasing scrutiny around human rights violations in seafood production to an uncertain and volatile business climate – it has deprioritized introspection of its own role in improving the work experience of underserved people in the sector. However, all these challenges are interrelated.
Another key focus of this partnership is to pilot SAGE’s gender equity index tool to assess SFP’s internal operations.
“Diverse workforces attract top talent and reduce employee turnover, and research shows that gender diversity in leadership is linked to higher profitability,” says Jim Cannon, chief executive officer of SFP. “I am keen to assess our own operations and apply what we learn from SAGE’s assessment because we owe it to our current and future workforce to periodically reflect on and adapt our policies to foster inclusivity and, thereby, innovation.”
SAGE is currently recruiting participant companies for the next GED cohort, scheduled to begin in early 2025. If you’re interested in participating in the next GED cohort or would like to learn more about SAGE’s gender equity index tool, contact Becca Williams at becca@seafoodandgenderequality.org. Read more about the GED on SAGE’s website here.
