Press release: Market Vendor Associations to undergo Leadership and Good Governance Training

Members of Auki Market Vendors Association with Market Management and UNW Staff. Photo: UN Women/Kristy Nowland

Monday 6 August 2018 (Solomon Islands): More than 40 Market Vendor Association (MVA) representatives will undergo leadership and good governance training in Honiara, Auki and Gizo markets in Solomon Islands from August to November.

The UN Women Markets for Change (M4C) Project training will be facilitated by M4C Project partner Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) and aims to equip market vendors with the relevant knowledge and skills on governance and leadership so that MVA leaders can lead and represent the interest of market vendors with their respective local government and market management.

The first training will be for Executive members of the Auki Market Vendors Association (AMVA) and will be held in Auki in August with 16 market vendors participating. Training for the Executive Members of the Honiara Central Market Vendors’ Association and the recently established Gizo Market Vendors Association will take place in September.

During the training, market vendor leaders will have the opportunity to learn and build upon skills and knowledge of a number of topics ranging from gender, leadership, conflict management and negotiation to customer service, association governance and Constitution, and how they can successfully organize and run associations.

“Market Vendor Associations in Solomon Islands are a relatively new concept and so the Executive Committees are still learning best practices.  MVA’s are important to ensure market vendors have a representative body to bring a collective voice in raising their concerns.

“This training is timely as the Associations are establishing and learning about how to grow and strengthen their Associations and the training will provide them with the skills and knowledge to do that. It’s about ensuring the associations have good governance and leadership to best serve their membership,” said Markets for Change Project Solomon Islands Program Manager, Kristy Nowland.

Governance and management training will also be conducted for local government staff from Honiara City Council, Malaita and Western Provincial Governments. The training will be targeted towards staff that work directly with markets.

UN Women’s M4C project 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, M4C is principally funded by the Australian Government, and since 2018 the project partnership has expanded to include funding support from the Government of Canada. UNDP is a project partner.