Hopes in Vanuatu market associations will help women

Transcript

A UN project manager is hoping an elected body will bring better representation and working conditions to women working in the Luganville market in the Vanuatu island of Santo.

Selling produce and crafts in markets is a vital source of income to many families in the Pacific, but women vendors are often under represented, and often have no say in the decision making processes.

Morris Kaloran told Lucy Smith an executive for the Luganville  market is being elected this week.  

Morris Kaloran:  The importance of markets, is that markets are the only source of income for any person in the society, market is the only source of income for everyone in Vanuatu. The project has 4 outcomes in this six year time frame. the first outcomes from the project is to establish the market vendors governance. We will, the project will create the establishment of the market vendors association.

Lucy Smith: I understand that people are going to be voting in representatives?

MK: Yes definitely that's the reason I'm here in Santo. We are anticipating that the process can attract about 1300 members who are financial members to come and cast their vote. Establishing the market centre association will give them a lot of opportunity to raise issues that have been effecting them and they've been silenced for. We know that in the future there will be more improvement in market centres with the association driving the ideas.

LS: What kind of issue and concerns do market vendors face currently?

MK: Travelling for long hours to come to the market they can travel for maybe a day and then go home the next day. Some of the experiences they are sharing are safety in the market it's not that safe. The infrastructure does not provide a good avenue where mama can sit down and sell her produce. Sometimes they're using abusive language towards market vendors. Also the infrastructure and facilities, and a lot of the design. Financially when they come in they sell their produce, they cannot manage their money, they cannot save their money. So those are some of the issues affecting our market centres, so we try to think of some strategies of how we can deal with those issues and improve the lives of our mamas here in Vanuatu.