Reflections on integrating gender-sensitive facilitation techniques in fieldtrip reports

The use of gender-sensitive approaches in communitybased fisheries management is important for inclusive
decision-making. To use and adapt these approaches
requires monitoring and evaluation protocols that include
reflections on gender. The Pathways Project has integrated
reporting and consideration about the use of gender-sensitive
facilitation techniques in fieldtrip reports used by fisheries
staff in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Kiribati. This analysis
will examine the different methods of gender reporting used
in Solomon Islands fieldtrip reports, reflections on how they
have been used by staff, and how they might be improved in
the future.
The pathways project is a response to the SPC Noumea
Strategy (“New Song”), which recognises that women and
youth are important in coastal fisheries management and
their voices should be heard in decision-making (SPC 2015).
This includes the gender-related goals of: 1) increasing
recognition of women’s contribution to coastal fisheries, 2)
enabling women’s engagement across scales of governance,
3) supporting fair livelihood opportunities and benefits for
women and men, and 4) improving the nutrition of new born
babies in their first 1000 days of birth (Kleiber et al. 2019a).
Furthermore, WorldFish has committed to the Gender Fish
Strategy where gender is to be integrated in all projects
(CGIAR 2017). Guiding principles include: 1) all research
involving humans should include a gender dimension, 2)
research should be gender aware and at least accommodating
(and moving towards transformative), and 3) research should
be intersectional.5
Given the mandate to create gender-inclusive communitybased resource management processes, the Pathways team
developed a list of how to put this into practice through
gender sensitive facilitation techniques that have been used
or could be used in the field (Kleiber et al. 2019b). These
facilitation techniques are designed to recognise barriers
to gender equity in community meetings, and suggest
facilitation practices that can increase inclusivity: before
(such as understanding local norms and ensuring sufficient
facilitation capacity), during (such as holding meetings for
women and men separately), and after meetings (such as
reflecting on the process). The use of these techniques, as
well as reflections on their efficacy, are important to capture
in monitoring and evaluation processes so that they can be
improved and scaled appropriately.