Free Inclusive Business Workshop on Seafood
On Monday 10 June, CSR Asia’s Chairman, Richard Welford, will deliver a half-day workshop at this year’s SeaWeb Seafood Sustainability Summit in Bangkok. This interactive session will explore the business case for adopting inclusive business practices that improve the lives of small-scale farmers and economically empower women in supply chains.
Seafood is one of the largest global exports, generating USD 135 billion in revenue each year. It is the major source of livelihoods for millions around the world; providing employment for one in ten people globally and supplying 17 percent of the global protein consumed. Despite the industry’s ability to provide for such a large number of the global population, in many cases it has done so at the mercy of vulnerable societies and unprotected marine environments – with human rights abuses remaining throughout supply chains.
Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture farms represent a large share of the seafood industry, producing more than half of all fish globally,3 from catch to processing. The productivity of small-scale producers is directly linked to their community’s economic growth (contributing from 0.5-2.5 percent of the GDP1), food security (making affordable seafood available and accessible to the poor) and poverty reduction – efforts which are not always recognized by national figures.2
In this workshop, we will look further into these the ways in which companies have been working to support small-scale producers while improving human rights issues. Examples will be provided of efforts which try to be inclusive, gender transformative, responsible; increasing incomes of poor people, expanding economic opportunities, and contributing to companies’ competitiveness.
Please register here to attend this workshop.
This workshop is free for companies to attend. However, attending will not grant a delegate badge for the remainder of the Summit. Please register at the link above to confirm your attendance.
The SeaWeb Seafood Sustainability Summit (Shangri-La Bangkok 10 -14 June 2019) is an annual global gathering of all working in seafood sustainability (https://www.seafoodsummit.org/). This workshop is held in conjunction by Oxfam and CSR Asia as part of GRAISEA, a regional programme funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok. Now on its second phase, GRAISEA (Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness Investments in South East Asia) promotes sustainable smallholder led business models in agricultural value chains together with stakeholders including private sector in order to tackle root causes of poverty, and supporting system-wide change. It focusses on social, economic and environmental sustainability and specifically emphasizes women’s economic empowerment as too often invisible members of agricultural value chains, and on improving resilience to climate change risks.
Sources:
1. Increasing the Contribution of Small-Scale Fisheries to Poverty Alleviation and Food Security – FAO
2. Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition – HLPE
3. Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture & Family Farming – FAO