Natural Resources and Food Security: Fish‐for‐Sex Relationships Around Lake Victoria, Kenya

Abstract

For rural populations, natural resources provide for food and livelihoods. An estimated 10‐12% of people work in fisheries; while the majority of fishers are men, 90% of traders are women. To understand how natural resources affect food security, we study how changing fish catch in Lake Victoria, Kenya affects food security and a transactional sexual economy. Where 65% of households are severely food insecure and HIV prevalence is 27%, we analyze fish declines' influence on fish‐for‐sex participation and power dynamics. Our mixed methods approach includes a cross‐sectional household survey (n=303) and in‐depth interviews (n=30). Sexual exchanges are reported by 34% of men and 10% of women. Among those who exchanged sex, men were more likely to fish for low‐value fish (Pearson chi‐square: 4.06, p=0.04), and women were more likely to be unmarried (6.40, p=0.01), food insecure (Fisher's exact test, p=0.04), and have a fisher as a partner (6.15, p=0.01). Qualitative data show that relationships are critical to women's fish access. Further, fish scarcity increases dependence on fish‐for‐sex relationships to smooth fluctuations in fish availability. Fish declines motivate entry into fish‐for‐sex and affect power dynamics, especially negotiation of condoms. Our results have implications for understanding the Lake Victoria fish‐for‐sex economy, and how resource declines may affect the food security and well‐being of populations dependent on increasingly scarce resources.