The Gender and Development Studies (GDS) Program of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), in collaboration with the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society (GAFS/AFS), recently co-authored a cutting-edge paper, “Gender monitoring schema for aquaculture projects: Capturing the process” published in the Aquaculture journal. Prof. Kyoko Kusakabe of GDS led a team of interdisciplinary researchers to create the prototype Gender Monitoring Schema for development projects in the field of nature-based aquaculture. The Gender Monitoring Schema aims to shift the trend in development projects from conventional project-end evaluation to process monitoring, resulting in gender-transformative and, hence, sustainable projects.
This article and the prototype schema are both outputs of the project titled “Making nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) in aquaculture in Southeast Asia monitoring more gender-responsive: What gets measured gets done” (GeNA project), which is being implemented by the AIT’s GDS program in collaboration with GAFS of AFS, the Cambodian Institute for Research and Rural Development (CIRD), and the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) with support from IDRC Canada’s AQUADAPT program.
“Women’s work on aquaculture farms is critical to the success of aquaculture projects, more so in the case of climate-friendly efforts such as rice-fish culture and seaweed farming. However, in the process of innovation, technological development, and dissemination, women’s work, expertise, and gendered knowledge are ignored, and this in turn impacts the success and sustainability of projects,” explains Prof. Kyoko. The project began with a deep dive into different Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) frameworks aimed at women’s inclusion, participation, and leadership in development projects. The researchers found that existing frameworks were limited in scope and did not lead to transformative experiences for the communities or women beneficiaries due to a variety of reasons, which led to the development of the schema that emphasises capturing the process.
Centering the Process of Change
The gender monitoring schema will be implemented alongside technical interventions and will monitor and identify subtle shifts in gender relations during the NbCS aquaculture project implementation. “The process of change is not always recognized when it is happening, so we have to capture change through people’s reflections, which is only possible with regular monitoring,” says Dr. Meryl J Williams, founder-chair of GAFS.
“While piloting the Gender Monitoring Schema, we discovered how much people’s lives depend on the environment. During our visit in early July, farmers had completed sowing rice seeds. By the next visit, the farms were flooded and all the seeds were washed out. So the farmers were preparing to sow seeds again, and they spoke about the impact of climate change on their lives,” said Ms Chollada Wongpanich of the Thailand pilot team. As climate shifts and rural fishing communities adapt, the gender monitoring schema is a pioneering framework that aims to ensure women’s voices, knowledge, and experiences are centered in designing innovation, thereby making aquaculture smarter, fairer, and more resilient.
“The schema will help us understand the pathways through which social change happens. This is critical for empowering women towards climate resilience,” adds Dr. Nikita Gopal, Chair of GAFS/AFS and Head of Extension, Information & Statistics at the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, India. The Gender Monitoring Schema aims to ensure that women’s participation in NbCS aquaculture is transformative, not merely participatory. It is currently being tested in multiple pilot sites across three countries: Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
The authors of this publication include senior academicians, early-career scholars, development workers, and policy makers, showcasing the range of inputs that have helped develop the Gender Monitoring Schema. One of the co-authors, Chollada Wongpanich, a recent graduate of the Gender and Development Studies (GDS) program at AIT, is now a researcher with the GeNA project. “Writing with leading scholars is mentorship in action,” Ms. Wongpanich said, reflecting on her journey from student to co-author.
Access the article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2025.742776
