Small-scale fisheries in low and middle-income countries lag significantly behind in access to trustworthy, consistent, and easily available fisheries data. Empirical studies on the effectiveness of mobile apps for transparent data sharing to address gender disparities and women's engagement in small-scale fisheries remain limited. Data is important because it identifies the reporting source, facilitates the evaluation of fishing activities, and ensures accountability within the fishing sector. This study examines the potential of mobile apps for increasing the visibility of women's contributions to small-scale fisheries using Mexico as a case study. Current research on the role of apps in promoting equitable and sustainable fisheries is insufficient, as it lacks detailed information on who is reporting the data and its impact on the fishing sector. The primary method for this study is Q-methodology, a participatory mixed-methods approach appropriate for extracting patterns of opinions held in common within a group. Ten representative fishers from different communities and villages in Mexico participated in the study, and the analysis highlighted two key perspectives. First, mobile apps facilitate increased visibility of women within the fishing community, promoting collaboration and partnership between male and female fishers; this builds a sense of trust and group identity within the community, leading to stronger collective action. Second, collective action in the community leads to male fishers entrusting women with more fishing tasks like reporting catch data on their behalf– a task traditionally performed only by male fishers. This results in women using mobile apps to take a more active role in reporting both community solutions and catch data which leads to increased compliance to marine reserves in the fishing community. The findings are important because the study explores the potential of technology, specifically mobile apps, in recognizing women's transformative roles in reporting fishing data for equitable and sustainable small-scale fisheries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-231668 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Ahmed, Tamhida |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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