The 'Memorandum of Understanding' aim to promote gender equity in the seafood industry.
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Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Seafood and Gender Equality (SAGE) have signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' to promote gender equity in the seafood industry.
The two organizations have announced this partnership at the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions annual conference.
In this way, SAGE will participate in SFP's Supply Chain Roundtables (SR), where knowledge and resources are shared to address gender inequalities and their challenges.
In these roundtables, seafood buyers and importers gather to propose individual initiatives and promote better fisheries policy and management.
"In addition, SAGE's flagship program, Gender Equality Dialogues (GED), will be introduced to the member companies of the SR, which aims to create a space to address gender inequalities and seek solutions for them.
Regarding the SRs, founder of SAGE, Julie Kuchepatov expressed: "We are excited to work with SFP and the SRs to explore the incorporation of a gender component to this work, as it has been shown that, by empowering women and historically excluded groups, we can achieve our goals around environmental improvements faster and at scale."
Finally, this alliance will allow for the review of SAGE's gender equity index tool: "I am interested in assessing our own operations and applying what we learn from SAGE's assessment," SFP Chief Executive Officer Jim Cannon said.
"We owe it to our current and future workforce to periodically reflect on and adapt our policies to foster inclusion and, thereby, innovation."
A month ago, SAGE, was awarded $715,000 in philanthropic grants. The funding was provided by the Builders Initiative Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Founded in 2020, SAGE aims to raise awareness of the critical yet often overlooked contributions of women in the seafood industry. These new grants highlighted the urgency of addressing inequities and empowering women within the sector, the organizations said.
Several companies, including Fortune Fish and Gourmet, Acme Smoked Fish, and Seattle Fish, have already participated in a year-long pilot GED program that concluded in July.
