A gender mainstreamed standard that aligns with the Environmental Farming Standard and provides producers with guidance on the minimum criteria required for both Compliant and Leader levels. The ASIC Social and Gender Standard covers eight fundamental principles and addresses an important need in smallholder aquaculture operations to support livelihood improvement, promote human rights in the supply chain, and foster access to equal opportunities via gender equality.

Through this initiative, ASIC continues to work with stakeholders to create a tool that will allow them to apply best practices, obtain new knowledge and skills, expand their market penetration both locally and worldwide, boost their earnings, and improve the well-being of their families and communities.

Initiated by trainings on the standard's benefits as well as how to conduct a self-assessment, producers are then guided through a process to add data into our application system. ASIC reviews the data and constructs a gap analysis and needs assessment based on the provided data. ASIC implements data triangulation from producers and related stakeholders to ensure social and gender challenges are properly captured. To construct an improvement plan, ASIC conducts on-site verification of the operation, collects and verifies data, and identifies any additional challenges and issues related to local social norms. Together with producer or producer groups, an improvement plan and timeline are created.