The Markets for Change project is a UN-led initiative to increase the participation of women market vendors in the planning and decision-making of the Pacific Islands’ market economy.
Problems and Purpose
Women market vendors in the Pacific Islands are severely under-represented in political and economic institutions, subject to discrimination and gender-based violence, and typically excluded from the market economy’s planning and decision-making. In response, the UN’s Markets for Change project (M4C) was launched to increase women’s voice and participation by creating inclusive and representative structures of market governance, formalizing vendors’ associations, development women’s skills and knowledge, and organizing workshops for women to come together to identify and discuss issues of concern. [1] According to the project’s lead organizer, UN Women, the M4C program “aims to ensure that marketplaces in rural and urban areas of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory, promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.”[2]
Background History and Context
Markets for Change is specifically aimed at the Pacific islands: Fiji, Solomon Island, Vanuatu where between 75 percent and 90 percent of market vendors are women. These countries have primarily rural populations, and women are mostly involved in the informal economy, primarily agriculture. These economies are subjected to increasingly destructive weather patterns and food insecurity is a growing concern affecting women’s principal activities. As well, women have historically been politically and economically marginalized and are still severely under-represented in both aspects of society.[3]
The program began in 2014 and builds on a series of UN Women pilot projects delivered between 2009 and 2012. It also benefits from strong relationships between local governments and UN Women forged through the agencies work across more than 20 market sites.[4]
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Markets for Change is led by UN Women with the support of local governments and representatives of women vendors’ associations. The project is primarily funded by the Australian Government and, since 2018, the Government of Canada.[5] According to a 2014 report, the project would inject more than US$10 million into the participating market sites.[6] A similar report a year later increased that figure to US$17 million.[7] A 2017 update reported that the program had secured an additional USD$7,000 for the last two years of the initiative.[8]
Participant Recruitment and Selection
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Methods and Tools
The Markets for Change project employs numerous methods and tools of engagement, such as: workshops, participatory planning, and training and capacity-building events.[9] The workshops are facilitated and follow a process specifically developed by UN Women for engaging and empowering women market vendors.[10]
What Went on: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Facilitated workshops held with women market vendors are a key component of the Markets for Change initiative. Using a model specifically designed for engaging and empowering women market vendors, each workshop helps participants identify the key features of their existing organizing and representation structures and processes and to agree on short-term solutions to strengthen women vendors’ participation and leadership in the organisation and representation of vendors.[11] Initial workshops brought women together and supported them to identify issues of concern and to organize themselves in order to strengthen their participation in market governance. Workshop participants lead a mapping process, asking fellow market vendors about the changes they would like to see, making the process highly participatory.[12]
Through workshops and other activities, the M4C project increases voice and participation of market vendors through accessible and inclusive governance structures within marketplaces; ensures that decision-making processes are more transparent and accountable; and works with local governments to create gender-responsive laws, infrastructure, and services. The ultimate goal is to agree operating conditions of the markets in which they work and to secure improvements. Markets for Change has also partnered with local government, market managers and vendors’ associations to develop strategic plans, for example in the case of natural disasters.[13]
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
Skills and capacity building have enabled women to understand economic processes and actively participate in them. UN Women has supported the creation and formalization of vendors’ associations.[14]
The initiative is still ongoing. Primary achievements as of 2015 included: 5 new market vendors’ associations created; 1465 market vendors trained; 278 market vendor association executive committee members trained.[15]
Analysis and Lessons Learned
According to the UN, the tailored design of the market vendor workshops has been instrumental in forming vendors associations where they didn’t exist, and reactivating those that had become dormant. As well, the establishment of ‘Women’s Clubs’ in two market sites in 2012 has provided women vendors with “a safe space to express their views, and the general vendors’ association have agreed to hold joint executive committee meetings to ensure that the needs and interests of all vendors are represented.”[16]
See Also
References
[1] “Markets set to improve with Pacific women in the lead,” UN Women, August 29, 2014, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/8/markets-set-to-improve-with-pacific-women-in-the-lead.
[2] “Markets for Change addresses barriers to women’s economic empowerment in Solomon Islands,” UN Women, Accessed 29 December 2018, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/10/news-markets-for-change-addresses-barriers-to-womens-economic-empowerment-in-solomon-islands.
[3] Markets for Change Project (Online: UN Women, 2015), 1, http://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20eseasia/docs/publications/2016/02/m4c_regionalbrief_17feb16_email.pdf?la=en&vs=3159.
[4] Markets for Change Project, 2.
[5] “Markets for Chance Project,” UN Pacific Office in Fiji, Accessed April 9, 2019, http://www.pacific.undp.org/content/pacific/en/home/operations/projects/poverty_reduction/markets-for-change-project.html.
[6] Markets for Change: Fiji | Solomon Islands | Vanuatu Market Profiles (Online: UN Women, July 2014), 5, http://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20eseasia/docs/publications/2014/8/m4c_narrative_aug25.pdf?la=en.
[7] Markets for Change Project, 2.
[8] “Markets for Change addresses barriers to women’s economic empowerment in Solomon Islands,” http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/10/news-markets-for-change-addresses-barriers-to-womens-economic-empowerment-in-solomon-islands
[9] Markets for Change: Fiji | Solomon Islands | Vanuatu Market Profiles, 5.
[10] Laila Harre and Kuini Lutua, Getting Started Toolkit: A Resource for Early Planning with Local Vendors and their Representatives on Forming an Association (Online: UN Women, December 2016), http://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20eseasia/docs/publications/2012/getting-started-too-%20kit-web-iii.pdf?la=en&vs=659.
[11] Harre and Lutua, Getting Started Toolkit, 7.
[12] “Markets set to improve with Pacific women in the lead,” http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/8/markets-set-to-improve-with-pacific-women-in-the-lead
[13] “Markets for Change addresses barriers to women’s economic empowerment in Solomon Islands,” http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/10/news-markets-for-change-addresses-barriers-to-womens-economic-empowerment-in-solomon-islands
[14] “Markets set to improve with Pacific women in the lead,” UN Women, August 29, 2014, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/8/markets-set-to-improve-with-pacific-women-in-the-lead
[15] Markets for Change Project, 3.
[16] “Markets set to improve with Pacific women in the lead,” UN Women, August 29, 2014, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/8/markets-set-to-improve-with-pacific-women-in-the-lead
External Links
UN Women ‘Markets for Change Market Profiles’: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/1/markets-for-change
UN Pacific Office in Fiji ‘Markets for Change Project’: http://www.pacific.undp.org/content/pacific/en/home/operations/projects/poverty_reduction/markets-for-change-project.html
Notes
Lead image: UN Women Pacific/Facebook, http://bit.ly/2D6vMG2
The first submission of this Participedia entry was adapted from a research project by the Institute of Development Studies, 'Linking Participation and Economic Advancement’ licensed and reproduced under Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).
Original source: https://www.eldis.org/keyissues/mapping-participation-economic-advancement
