Empowering Women in Aquaculture: Using the RuleWatcher to Explore Global Strategies for Empowering Women in Aquaculture

Author

Gueye Fatou Kine

Abe scholar, Master’s student at Tokyo University of Agriculture

Key Findings

• Using RuleWatcher, I was able to collect and compare policy documents and reports on aquaculture and gender equality from multiple regions, including Mexico, Zanzibar, South Africa, the UK, and the  European Union (EU). 

• Using filters for themes (aquaculture, gender inequality) I was able to collect relevant insights in minutes. I found 73 articles.

• The combination of RuleWatcher with generative AI helped me summarize long documents and compare cross-regional perspectives effectively.

General Overview

Aquaculture is very important for food and jobs in many countries. It also helps communities deal with climate change and support their families. But in many places, the work of women in aquaculture is not recognized enough. Women often have less access to land, training, money, and decision-making power. This makes it harder for them to grow in the sector, even though they play a big role particularly in fish farming and processing.

I became motivated to study this because I have seen the differences between men and women in aquaculture. I believe that when women are fully included, aquaculture becomes stronger and more sustainable. Giving women more opportunities is not only fair but also helps families, communities, and national economies. My passion is to show how empowering women in aquaculture can create change, reduce poverty, and build resilience for the future.

Research Topic

My research looks at the management of freshwater aquaculture and fish processing in Senegal. I study how women are involved, what difficulties they face, and how their role can be improved. Some of the problems I focus on are lack of access to financial services, limited training, and social barriers that reduce their decision-making power.

To understand Senegal better, I also compare it with global examples. In Zanzibar, women use seaweed farming as part of the “blue economy,” which helps them earn money and fight climate change. In Mexico, the government has made aquaculture a national priority for food security, and this opens space to think about gender inclusion. The European Union (EU), on the other hand, links aquaculture to biodiversity and circular economy policies, which also mention equality.

By looking at Senegal together with these international cases, I can see what works and what does not. This helps me find lessons and ideas that could support women in Senegalese aquaculture, and also connect the local experience to the global debate on gender equality and sustainable development.

Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this study is to examine how aquaculture in Senegal can empower women while contributing to food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity. Using insights from RuleWatcher, the research connects local challenges with global strategies to identify lessons for more inclusive and sustainable aquaculture policies.

The Product: RuleWatcher

RuleWatcher is a platform that monitors global regulations, policies, and news on sustainability issues. It collects primary information from governments and organizations, then organizes it by themes (e.g., Global Environment, Tech & Society, Human Rights, New Economy), offering key features such as search, treemap, filtering, and bookmarking to enhance its usage. This makes it faster and easier to find relevant documents and compare trends across regions.

For researchers, the main benefits are:

• Efficiency: quickly identifying and exporting relevant documents.

• Breadth: accessing policies and reports from many regions at once.

• Time spent: for example, this exercise took less than four hours with RuleWatcher, whereas it would normally take several days of manual searching across dozens of government and NGO websites.

In my case, I used RuleWatcher to gather reports on aquaculture and gender equality from Zanzibar, Mexico, the EU, South Africa, and the UK, which allowed me to place Senegal’s experience within a wider global context.

How RuleWatcher Was Used

In the search interface, the aquaculture and gender inequality tags were used along with the selected timeframe (2023/09/05 - 2025/09/05). The system produced about 73 relevant results, including articles such as; “South Africa and the UK hold the 13th Bilateral Forum and Zanzibar’s Blue Economy Offers Hope Amid Rising Seas and Gender Inequity”. Each result is tagged with themes like food system, biodiversity, climate change, and aquaculture, illustrating the relevance of the export.

The Transition function in the platform was used to visualize trends by country over time. In the graph below, darker blue shades indicate a higher number of mentions. We see strong activity from the EU, Mexico, and South Africa, with other regions like Indonesia and Norway appearing at specific moments. This highlights where the global conversation on aquaculture and gender inequality is concentrated.

A treemap of themes and topics was used. Larger blocks show dominant issues, such as the New EU Budget, small-scale farmers, BRICS agriculture, Mediterranean aquaculture, and the fishing supply chain. Surrounding themes include Southern Africa, USAID Indonesia, and resources for climate adaptation.

A treemap visualization tool was used to display themes and topics. Larger blocks represent dominant issues, such as the New EU Budget, small-scale farmers, BRICS agriculture, Mediterranean aquaculture, and the fishing supply chain. Surrounding themes include Southern Africa, USAID Indonesia, and resources for climate adaptation.

The dataset was exported as a CSV file, which allowed me to process the information further. The interface shows that for this specific search 73 articles were obtained. 

External Tools Used with RuleWatcher

The CSV file was opened in Excel, where the dataset from RuleWatcher has been structured into different columns such as publication date, article title, URL, summary, organization details, and thematic tags. This sheet represents the raw material which will be used later to analyze and identify trends, organizational networks, and policy focus.

ChatGPT (Generative AI) was used to condense the large into five clear thematic clusters, making it easier to understand the main directions of global discussions on aquaculture and gender inequality. At the end I got a conceptual map of my research findings, helping me transition from raw RuleWatcher exports to structured academic insights.

Findings

The RuleWatcher dataset showed that several major themes recur across different countries. Food security is prioritized in Mexico’s aquaculture policy and in the UK–South Africa Bilateral Forum. Gender inequality is addressed through Zanzibar’s blue economy, where women lead seaweed farming, and in South Africa’s human rights discussions. Aquaculture development is reinforced by Mexico’s national policy, EU strategies, and Senegal’s freshwater initiatives. Climate change appears in Zanzibar’s adaptation practices and EU climate policies. Finally, biodiversity is central in EU frameworks that connect aquaculture to circular economy and environmental protection.

Table 1: Cross-country Topics Summary

Topic	Example Country/Region	Example Policy/Document
Food Security (1)	Mexico; UK‚ South Africa	Mexico declares aquaculture a national priority
Gender Inequality (2)	Zanzibar; South Africa	Zanzibar' blue economy highlighting women seaweed farmers
Aquaculture Development (3)	Mexico; EU; Senegal	Mexico aquaculture policy ; EU aquaculture strategies ; Senegal freshwater aquaculture focus
Climate Change (4)	Zanzibar; EU	Zanzibar seaweed farming for climate adaptation ; EU biodiversity and climate policy
Biodiversity (5)	European Union	EU biodiversity and circular economy frameworks

Conclusions

This study shows that aquaculture in Senegal is linked to global priorities such as food security, gender equality, climate change, and biodiversity. By utilizing the RuleWatcher platform, it was possible to link local challenges with international strategies from regions such as Mexico, Zanzibar, South Africa, the UK, and the EU. 

The findings highlight that empowering women in aquaculture is not only a local need but also part of a broader  global agenda for sustainable development.

References

(1) GOV.UK. (2025, September 3). The 13th South Africa–UK Bilateral Forum. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/south-africa-and-the-uk-hold-the-13th-bilateral-forum

(2) Inter Press Service. (2025, August 25). Zanzibar’s blue economy highlighting women seaweed farmers. IPS News. https://www.ipsnews.net/ 

(3) Government of Mexico. (2025, June 22). Mexico aquaculture policy. Gob.mx. https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/1006298/GC_HP_V-2025-ENG.pdf 

(3) EUR-Lex. (2025, July 16). EU aquaculture strategies. EUR-Lex, European Union Law. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52025PC0559 

(3) RuleWatcher Extract. (2025). Senegal freshwater aquaculture focus [Database extract]. RuleWatcher database. 

 (4) Inter Press Service. (2025, August 27). Zanzibar seaweed farming for climate adaptation. IPS News. https://x.com/ipsnews/status/1960705171954032701 

European Union. (2025, July 16). EU biodiversity and climate policy. EUR-Lex.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52025DC037

(5) European Commission. (2025). EU biodiversity and circular economy frameworks. EUR-Lex / European Commission policy documents.