The invisible fishers: Empowering women fish processors

In many coastal and lake communities in Ghana, women dominated the post-landing value chain but remained largely invisible to policymakers. The Invisible Fishers project addressed the high prevalence of anaemia among these women, which was often exacerbated by chronic smoke inhalation and nutritional gaps. The project piloted and scaled strategies to improve the health, recognition, and economic resilience of women engaged in fish-smoking livelihoods in the Volta and Central regions.

Also, anemia among women of reproductive age remains an intractable public health problem in many low- and middle-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where more than one-third of women of reproductive age are anemic.

Objectives and Outcomes

To achieve these goals, the project focused on three integrated outcome areas:

• Implemented Behaviour Change Communication (BCC):
  The project delivered targeted education on the causes of anaemia and risk-reduction strategies through mobile audio messages and guided group discussions.

• Strengthened market engagement:
  We improved women's economic stability by providing entrepreneurship training, daily market price information, and access to interest-free loans to overcome storage and credit barriers.

• Introduced improved technology:
  The project promoted and subsidized the "Ahotor" oven, a cleaner fish-smoking technology designed to significantly reduce exposure to harmful airborne pollutants and smoke.

SNV implemented the Invisible Fishers research project. This Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded project is being implemented in partnership with the University of Michigan - School of Public Health, the University of Ghana, Viamo and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). The full name of the project is: 'The invisible fishers: Empowering and safeguarding women in fisheries value chains in Ghana to reduce anemia'.

Results and Impact

SNV's main role was to introduce improved fish smoking technology and practices to women processors, aimed both at improving earnings and reducing harmful occupational exposures associated with fish smoking. The intervention builds on SNV's experience from the USAID funded-Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) and the core funded Improved Fish Smoking and Mangrove Conservation Project (IFS).

Smoked fish value chains in Ghana have clear potential to influence anemia risk among women fish smokers via multiple, potentially interconnected and contradictory mechanisms. More broadly, these value chains also have significant potential to affect the nutrition and health status of coastal and lake communities and of consumers across the country, whose diets are profoundly shaped by them. We expect that the findings of this research will significantly contribute to understanding how best to design, implement, and evaluate interventions into fisheries and other animal-sourced food value chains in Ghana and across Sub-Saharan Africa to address anemia and related nutrition and health concerns.