Special Gender Issue of Asian Fisheries Science journal released for FREE DOWNLOAD
Our Guest Editorial explores how the gender agenda is progressing in aquaculture and fisheries, and then 21 research and technical papers and short reports explore (a) gender roles in widely varying aquaculture and fisheries socio-ecological systems, (b) women's agency in fish supply chains and ecosystems and (c) inclusion of women in aquaculture and fisheries institutions.
Read and download for free all these papers and the summary of all presentations at the 2011 3rd Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries here. We are grateful to the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for enabling the Asian Fisheries Society to make the journal issue free from the start.
Penelope Beynon, Christelle Chapoy, Marie Gaarder and Edoardo Masset of the Institute of Development Studies, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and NORAD carried out an intriguing randomized control design survey involving over 800 experts to try to answer this question.
The policy brief used in the study was the report: Masset, E.; Haddad, L.; Cornelius, A. and Isaza-Castro, J. (2011) A Systematic Review of Agricultural Interventions that Aim to Improve Nutritional Status of Children. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. It included fisheries interventions.
One conclusion was that including an opinion piece with the Policy Brief "seemed to help in reinforcing certain key messages more than others. Respondents who did not receive an opinion piece tended to identify other key messages within the text of the policy brief."
Summary: Research has potential to improve the lives of the world's vulnerable people if it is appropriately referred to in decision-making processes. While there is a significant industry of activity each year to communicate research findings, little systematic research has tested or compared the effectiveness of such efforts either for changing beliefs or for prompting action. Using a randomised control design, this study explored the effectiveness of one popular research communication tool, a policy brief, and queried whether different versions of a brief bring about different results. We find that the policy brief had little effect on changing the beliefs of readers who held strong prior beliefs on entering the study, but had some potential to create evidence-accurate beliefs among readers holding no prior beliefs. Also, when it comes to beliefs, the impact of the policy brief seems to be independent of the specific form of the policy brief. However, different versions of the brief (versions that include a research Opinion with or without a suggestion that the opinion is from an Authoritative source) do achieve different results when it comes to prompting actions. We find that other factors internal and external to the brief (gender of the reader, reader's self-perceived level of influence and the extent to which the reader feels 'convinced' by the brief) are also linked to action. This first-of-its-kind study has implications for how research communication experts design policy briefs, how they understand and enable readers to act as knowledge brokers in their particular environment, and how we evaluate research communication going forward.
Seaweed farming has grown at much the same rapid rate as other forms of aquaculture in the last twenty years, but seaweeds are produced in far fewer countries than, for example, farmed fish. The Philippines and Tanzania are among the top 8 countries. India is not yet on the list but, on the Coromandel (southeast) Indian coast, the industry commenced in the early 2000s as a platform for women's empowerment.
Comparative studies on the social and gender dimensions of seaweed farming in Zanzibar (Tanzania), India and Philippines are not available but the three studies below provide insights into different aspects of seaweed farming. Sara Frocklin and colleagues focus on women's health in the industry in Zanzibar. Ramchandran analyses the property rights and support for women and men from a gender perspective in seaweed and other forms of mariculture in India, finding that women are tending to lose access when an industry's profitability is proven. Della Grace Bacaltos and colleagues describe community group building efforts and gender roles for small-scale farmers in the Philippines in the Davao.
Follow the link above to read more and download the studies.
http://genderaquafish.org/2012/08/18/moving-the-agenda-forward/
Special Gender Issue of Asian Fisheries Science journal released for FREE DOWNLOAD
Our Guest Editorial explores how the gender agenda is progressing in aquaculture and fisheries, and then 21 research and technical papers and short reports explore (a) gender roles in widely varying aquaculture and fisheries socio-ecological systems, (b) women's agency in fish supply chains and ecosystems and (c) inclusion of women in aquaculture and fisheries institutions.
Read and download for free all these papers and the summary of all presentations at the 2011 3rd Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries here. We are grateful to the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for enabling the Asian Fisheries Society to make the journal issue free from the start.
Hard copies can be purchased from the Asian Fisheries Society (www.asianfisheriessociety.org).
http://genderaquafish.org/2012/09/04/having-impact-with-your-research-results/
What Difference Does a Policy Brief Make?
Penelope Beynon, Christelle Chapoy, Marie Gaarder and Edoardo Masset of the Institute of Development Studies, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and NORAD carried out an intriguing randomized control design survey involving over 800 experts to try to answer this question.
The policy brief used in the study was the report: Masset, E.; Haddad, L.; Cornelius, A. and Isaza-Castro, J. (2011) A Systematic Review of Agricultural Interventions that Aim to Improve Nutritional Status of Children. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. It included fisheries interventions.
One conclusion was that including an opinion piece with the Policy Brief "seemed to help in reinforcing certain key messages more than others. Respondents who did not receive an opinion piece tended to identify other key messages within the text of the policy brief."
Summary:
Research has potential to improve the lives of the world's vulnerable people if it is appropriately referred to in decision-making processes. While there is a significant industry of activity each year to communicate research findings, little systematic research has tested or compared the effectiveness of such efforts either for changing beliefs or for prompting action. Using a randomised control design, this study explored the effectiveness of one popular research communication tool, a policy brief, and queried whether different versions of a brief bring about different results. We find that the policy brief had little effect on changing the beliefs of readers who held strong prior beliefs on entering the study, but had some potential to create evidence-accurate beliefs among readers holding no prior beliefs. Also, when it comes to beliefs, the impact of the policy brief seems to be independent of the specific form of the policy brief. However, different versions of the brief (versions that include a research Opinion with or without a suggestion that the opinion is from an Authoritative source) do achieve different results when it comes to prompting actions. We find that other factors internal and external to the brief (gender of the reader, reader's self-perceived level of influence and the extent to which the reader feels 'convinced' by the brief) are also linked to action. This first-of-its-kind study has implications for how research communication experts design policy briefs, how they understand and enable readers to act as knowledge brokers in their particular environment, and how we evaluate research communication going forward.
http://genderaquafish.org/2012/09/07/seaweed-farming-three-countries-three-different-experiences/
Seaweed farming has grown at much the same rapid rate as other forms of aquaculture in the last twenty years, but seaweeds are produced in far fewer countries than, for example, farmed fish. The Philippines and Tanzania are among the top 8 countries. India is not yet on the list but, on the Coromandel (southeast) Indian coast, the industry commenced in the early 2000s as a platform for women's empowerment.
Comparative studies on the social and gender dimensions of seaweed farming in Zanzibar (Tanzania), India and Philippines are not available but the three studies below provide insights into different aspects of seaweed farming. Sara Frocklin and colleagues focus on women's health in the industry in Zanzibar. Ramchandran analyses the property rights and support for women and men from a gender perspective in seaweed and other forms of mariculture in India, finding that women are tending to lose access when an industry's profitability is proven. Della Grace Bacaltos and colleagues describe community group building efforts and gender roles for small-scale farmers in the Philippines in the Davao.
Follow the link above to read more and download the studies.