This handbook is designed as a learning guide (1) to improve knowledge and awareness and (2) to provide practical ideas and approaches towards the application of gender equity, social inclusion and human rights (GESI/HR) to a mixed target audience.

The primary audience is Pacific national fisheries agencies and other public or semi-public and intergovernmental institutions that can, through their work, positively shape the Pacific’s tuna industry towards a more equitable, inclusive, and human rights-based orientation. While portfolios for the tuna industry sit mainly with the offshore divisions in the respective Pacific Ministries of Fisheries, the handbook aims to provide practical guidance to oceanic fisheries managers, scientists, officers, economists and legal experts in these divisions. The overlapping nature of tuna fisheries with small-scale coastal fisheries is also acknowledged in this handbook (Module 6), and thus staff from coastal fisheries divisions may also benefit from this handbook.

In addition, this handbook acknowledges the role the private sector plays by uplifting the idea of a shared responsibility of private and public players to ensure that the Pacific’s GESI and HR commitments and internationally recognised standards are applied in legal and policy frameworks as well as in business practices. This handbook provides angles, case studies, and information that is directly linked to how the private sector can apply GESI/HR lenses in business operations.

As a secondary audience, training and education institutions are targeted; these include the maritime colleges and the University of the South Pacific Marine Institute and the broader non-governmental and civil society organisations that advocate, raise awareness of and provide technical assistance to government agencies on matters that concern GESI and HR in the broader oceanic fisheries scene.