IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wodepe/v38y2025ics2452292925000323.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Allegretti, Antonio
  • Ayilu, Raymond K.
  • Okafor-Yarwood, Ifesinachi M.
  • Standen, Sophie
  • Hicks, Christina C.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Allegretti, Antonio & Ayilu, Raymond K. & Okafor-Yarwood, Ifesinachi M. & Standen, Sophie & Hicks, Christina C., 2025. "Beyond growth? Understanding the grassroots entrepreneurship of women fish processors in Ghana," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:38:y:2025:i:c:s2452292925000323
    DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292925000323
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:38:y:2025:i:c:s2452292925000323. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/world-development-perspectives .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.