Category: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

People with disabilities remain almost absent from Vietnam’s aquaculture development strategies, even as nature-based models open new doors for inclusion and sustainable livelihoods.

The woman who monitors the water at 5am and negotiates with the trader at harvest does not disappear just because the survey did not ask about her. She keeps the operation running. She just does not show up in the analysis.

In a Mekong Delta that is changing rapidly and unpredictably, adaptive capacity does not come from better control of nature, but from the ability to live with change through flexible, equitable, and self-adjusting relationships.

The women who manage Mekong Delta ponds every day, who know by observation when water conditions are changing, and who absorb the financial shocks of disease outbreaks in their household budgets, are already doing the work that smart aquaculture is designed to support.

Across all shrimp farming systems, gender roles remain clearly differentiated. Men predominantly control decision-making, investment, and technical operations, particularly in intensive farming systems. Women’s participation is largely supportive, focusing on harvesting, daily maintenance tasks, and household financial management.