Beyond growth? Understanding the grassroots entrepreneurship of women fish processors in Ghana

Abstract

Fish processing is crucial for women and households for its economic and food-related benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, entrepreneurial women involved in fish processing operate at the intersection of different growth agendas and interventions that will directly or indirectly determine the future of the sector. Blue Economy investments in Ghana are disconnected from the small-scale fisheries sector, focusing on large-scale development projects. Concurrently, interest in the post-harvest, women-led, fish processing sector is growing on the side of NGOs and international agencies that invest on the premise of an untapped potential of the sector. This paper aims to problematize what growth is for small-scale women fish processing entrepreneurs within this diverse and rapidly changing landscape of investments and priorities for the growth of the broad ocean-based sector. Drawing on insights from anthropology of entrepreneurship, innovation, skill and learning, we look at organization of space, management and utilization of resources, and application of skills and technology needed for the enterprises to operate; we show entrepreneurship as an assemblage of practices, visions and aspirations (for growth) that hinge on spatial, relational, and temporal contextual dimensions, between smaller fishing communities and larger urban centres along the coast. Accounting for the complex and diverse nature of post-harvest relations in the fish processing sector is critical for policies and interventions that are tailored to the needs and aspirations of women in different contexts. As growth takes centre stage in all dominant development agendas in Africa, this paper responds to the necessity for new tools to apprehend how African players position themselves on the global stage.