Better TokTok for Luganville market vendors

[Press Release]

Luganville Market, Vanuatu — Vendors are welcoming the new Public Announcement (PA) system at Luganville market in Santo to keep them better informed about important market issues.

The new PA system responds to feedback from market vendors identifying information needs, developing and accessing effective communication tools by which local authorities can communicate, as critical to market operations and very important to vendors in the Luganville market in Santo.

Luganville market manager using the new PA system to make announcement at the market. Photo: UN Women/Trisha Toangwera

“Market is the best place for me to receive information when I am marketing at Luganville market,” advised a market vendor from the Big Bay Bush area during this week’s handover of the PA system by the Luganville Municipal Council to the Luganville Market Manager and the Northern Island Market Vendors Association (NIMVA).

The PA system has been provided by the UN Women Markets for Change project, funded by the Australian Government, to help the market manager with two-way communications and to better share important information with the vendors at the market.

With limited internet or mobile phone network coverage and high cost of using telecommunication in very remote areas of Santo, market vendors and the rural population have limited opportunities to receive valuable information.

“We have to walk for two hours to reach the venue where we can access the network,” the Big Bay Bush market vendor added.

At the handover event at Luganville Municipal Council it was highlighted that public transport drivers, radio, aid posts and market vendor associations have preveiously been the main bridge filling the gap of information sharing between the market manager and the market vendors over the years.

“This is a symbol of the works yet to come. The PA system can be used to carry out awareness in the market,” acting Town Clerk Philip Isom of Luganville Municipal Council told guests at the Luganville Municipality Council’s handover, highlighting the council’s support for the Markets for Change project.

“I would like to thank M4C for answering the need of access to loud, clear and right information of the market vendors,” says Marie Vuti, President of the NIMVA association.

UN Women’s Markets for Change (M4C) project is a key component of its Women’s Economic Empowerment programme. M4C is a six-year, multi-country initiative that aims to ensure marketplaces in rural and urban areas of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. A UN Women project, Markets for Change is principally funded by the Australian Government.