DFM Bangladesh Scoping research protocol
This text is taken from DFM Scoping Research Ethics Protocol Document 32: Bangladesh Research Protocol Supplement
This document provides supplementary details concerning dried fish value chain scoping research to be conducted in Bangladesh.
Research partners
Project Co-Investigators will collaborate with the faculty and students of two partner institutions in carrying out Dried Fish Matters Scoping research in Bangladesh.
The Department of Fish, Biology & Genetics at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) has, under the direction of Prof. Mostafa Hossain, long been involved in the research on a number of issues pertinent to dried and fermented fish value chain. Department research has investigated the diversity of fish species used to produce dried fish, ecological implications of fish harvest for drying, drying technologies, stakeholders in the dried fish value chain and their livelihoods, and risks and threats faced by the sector.
The Department of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University (JU) is the oldest and among the largest anthropology departments in Bangladesh, training an average of 300 students per year. With nineteen faculty members providing expertise in the areas of ethnicity, environment, gender, development, and livelihoods, the department is suitably positioned to coordinate multifaceted qualitative research on the dried fish sector. JU research will contribute an enhanced understanding of how changes in Bangladesh’s dried fish value chains affect the food and nutrition security of more vulnerable groups, including women and children.
Stakeholder consultation
To engage in dialogue with local stakeholders of this research, including participants, a half-day consultation meeting will be held in Chittagong/Cox’s Bazar, attended by project team members from BAU, JU, and other institutions. Invitees will include dried fish processors, drying yard owners, dried fish traders (retailers, wholesalers, depot owners), fishers, boat owners, credit providers, and workers from the Department of Fisheries, FAO, WFP, IRC, and relevant NGOs. In addition to providing an opportunity for the project team to introduce the goals and planned activities of this research, the meeting will allow for an initial dialogue on the knowledge gaps concerning the dried fish economy and how they should be approached in the research. This meeting will constitute an important first step in the informed consent process (consent of communities).
Research Methods
Dried fish production in Bangladesh takes place in coastal areas in the south west (Barguna, Patuakhali and Kuakata) and in the south-east (Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Kutubdia, Teknaf and St. Martin). Inland dried fish are produced and marketed in the north and northwest (Rangpur-Dinajpur and Chalan Beel area) and in the central region (Sylhet-Mymensingh floodplain). Researchers will conduct semi-structured interviews with a stratified sample of individuals and groups in each of these communities, following the procedures and interview guides described in the core research protocol.
In addition to semi-structured interviews, the team will conduct standard PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) activities in production and processing communities. Recruitment to these group activities will be conducted through the same process as with the semi-structured interviews, but consent will be taken as distinct (see the Informed Consent Form, Document 35). The methods for these activities will follow the procedures outlined in the FAO “PRA Tool Box” (Sontheimer et al. 1999). Lightly adapted versions of the guidelines for the two main tools to be used are presented in the accompanying files: “Seasonal Calendar” (Document 42) and “Venn Diagram” (Document 43).
Vulnerable groups: Rohingya refugees
While many of those who are involved in the dried fish economy in Bangladesh are relatively poor, most do not belong to vulnerable groups. A notable exception is the case of Rohingya refugee communities, from which many women, men, and children have become involved in the dried fish sector as fishers, fish processors and retailers. The population of the two upazilas (sub-districts) of Ukhia and Teknaf has increased from approximately 0.5 million to 1.5 million due to the recent influx of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. Legally refugees are not permitted to be involved in any sort of livelihood (income earning) activities and are expected to be entirely dependent on food and other relief available through the camps. In practice Bangladesh has not been able to enforce this regulation, so nearly all male refugees (adults and children over 10 years old) and a significant number of female refugees are now involved in different income-earning activities such as fishing, fish drying, earth cutting, road construction, agricultural labour, carpentry, domestic help, and retailing. Recent studies have revealed that labour markets in Ukhia, Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar Sadar have been swamped by refugees. This is particularly the case for the fish drying industry, as many Rohingyas previously worked in fisheries or in dried fish processing and trade in Myanmar. In most of the large fish drying yards of Tenkaf and Cox’s Bazar, nearly all workers are Rohingya women and children and nearly half of the fishing labour in the Bay of Bengal are Rohingya men.
This involvement of refugees in the local labour market has had a variety of economic and political effects. Wealthy locals are employing Rohingyas as a source of cheap labour: for similar work, a local Bangladeshi labourer might ask for BDT 300-500/day whereas a Rohningya will earn BDT 150-250/day. These conditions have contributed to an overall decline in wage levels and employment among local workers, who resent the negative impacts on their livelihoods, contrasting to the more positive attitudes of those who hire wage labourers. The situation is complicated by the fact that neither the Rohingya community nor their employers admit that Rohingyas are working, for fear of being penalized by authorities. As the refugees have some physical similarities with the local Bangladeshis and they can easily learn the local Bengali dialect, it is very difficult for international aid workers or Bangladeshi people from other areas of the country to distinguish between refugees and locals.
The social tensions and illegal practices involved in Bangladesh have the potential to put refugees, Bangladeshi labourers, and employers at risk if information about their situation is disclosed inappropriately. We will take the following approaches in order to minimize risk in the communities in which refugees are present.
- All research participants will remain completely anonymous. In contrast to the core DFM research protocol, we will NOT collect demographic information (Document 18 in the primary ethics submission) or record contact details for follow-up research (see the Informed Consent Form, Document 35, and closing script, Document 41). Although communities will be identifiable to our field researchers and data analysist, we will also use coded names for these communities when disseminating data that include representations of vulnerable groups.
- As a major part of our analysis, and prior to disclosing any research findings, we will carefully consider the implications of potential policy scenarios and how the likelihood of those scenarios might be influenced by the findings we publish. Such scenarios will include, but not be limited to, a withdrawal of state support for Rohingya refugees, a crackdown on illegal labour, and the relocation of refugee camps. We will disclose our findings in a way that minimizes potential impacts on refugees, local labourers, and business owners – if necessary by sharing data confidentially with research partners and stakeholders, or by withholding data until immediate risks have dissipated.
Food safety
The use of pesticides in fish drying in Bangladesh is particularly widespread during both drying and storage, but its extent depends partly on the species dried and the drying season. The owners of drying yards or trusted labourers dip or soak fish in tanks of water dosed with several drops of pesticide. Spraying insecticides on the fish is also a common practice. Thousands of workers use their bare hands to mix poisonous chemicals without knowledge of short-term and long-term health impacts. Pesticide use is also very common in the trading and stockpiling nodes of the value chain, yet producers and traders commonly deny using chemical pesticides.
The potential impacts on producers of research concerning dried fish contamination has been addressed in the core ethics protocol. In this case, we note a potential for economic risk to participants if the research publishes findings that identify dried fish from specific producers or communities as unhealthy. As with illegal labour described above, we will mitigate risk in this area by anonymizing all data collected from producers and labourers, and by presenting findings in a generalized form.
