The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Seafood and Gender Equality (SAGE) have joined forces to promote gender equity in the global seafood industry.
The partnership was announced at the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions annual conference, and will see the two address both environmental and social responsibilities in fisheries, aquaculture and seafood production.
The initiative aims to engage SFP’s supply chain roundtables (SR), where major seafood buyers and importers work together to promote sustainable practices. Incorporating SAGE’s gender equality dialogues (GED) programme will help provide SR members with essential knowledge and tools to tackle gender inequality.
“The SRs have a singular purpose – to drive significant and measurable change to fisheries sustainability,” commented Julie Kuchepatov, founder of SAGE.
“It has been shown that, by empowering women and historically excluded groups, we can achieve our goals around environmental improvements faster and at scale.”
The partnership comes amid increasing scrutiny of human rights abuses in seafood production and a volatile business climate. A key component will be piloting SAGE’s gender equity index tool to evaluate 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,” said Jim Cannon, chief executive 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 reflect on and adapt our policies to foster inclusivity and, thereby, innovation.”
SAGE is currently recruiting participants for its next GED cohort, set to launch in early 2025.
