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"Ocean Optimism" and resilience : learning from women's responses to disruptions caused by COVID-19 to small-scale fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea

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Date
22/06/2022
Author
Okafor-Yarwood, Ife
van den Berg, Sayra
Collins, Yolanda Ariadne
Sefa-Nyarko, Clement
Funder
Scottish Funding Council
Grant ID
N/A
Keywords
"Ocean Optimism"
Resilience
COVID-19
Livelihood diversification
Gender
Women
Small-scale fisheries
Gulf of guinea
SH Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling
E-DAS
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Abstract
This study examines the response of women to disruptions caused by COVID-19 in small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the Gulf of Guinea (GOG). It interrogates the concept of resilience and its potential for mitigating women’s vulnerability in times of adversity. We define resilience as the ability to thrive amidst shocks, stresses, and unforeseen disruptions. Drawing on a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews with key informants from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, and a literature review, we highlight how COVID-19 disruptions on seafood demand, distribution, labour and production acutely affected women and heightened their pre-existing vulnerabilities. Women responded by deploying both negative and positive coping strategies. We argue that the concept of resilience often romanticises women navigating adversity as having ‘supernatural’ abilities to endure disruptions and takes attention away from the sources of their adversity and from the governments' concomitant failures to address them. Our analysis shows reasons for “ocean optimism” while also cautioning against simplistic resilience assessments when discussing the hidden dangers of select coping strategies, including the adoption of digital solutions and livelihood diversification, which are often constructed along highly gendered lines with unevenly distributed benefits.
Citation
Okafor-Yarwood , I , van den Berg , S , Collins , Y A & Sefa-Nyarko , C 2022 , ' "Ocean Optimism" and resilience : learning from women's responses to disruptions caused by COVID-19 to small-scale fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea ' , Frontiers in Marine Science , vol. 9 , 862780 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.862780
Publication
Frontiers in Marine Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.862780
ISSN
2296-7745
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022 Okafor-Yarwood, van den Berg, Collins and Sefa-Nyarko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
The University of St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme (SARRF) is funded through the SFC grant reference SFC/AN/08/020. The University of St Andrews Institutional Open Access Fund (IOAF) is acknowledged for open access support.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/25557

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