Among those women is Joy Frank. She wakes at 5am every morning to paddle her dugout canoe, rain or sunshine, across a lagoon to the Auki market. To make a living, she sells whatever she can harvest and cultivate, usually fish and produce from her garden.

After the market association organized training for vendors on food safety and hygiene, she found she could prevent spoilage and sell more of her goods. “Just by practicing proper food handling, my sales have increased”, she says.

Ramo and Frank are among nearly 10,000 women market vendors in the Pacific who are seeing lasting improvements in their lives by taking part in UN Women’s Markets for Change programme in the past 11 years. Covering 26 markets in four countries—Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu—it first launched in 2014. An initial phase from 2014 to 2021 was funded by the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and a second phase from 2022 to 2026 by the Government of Australia. Since 2014, the programme has worked with 50,500 market vendors across four countries.

Over a decade, the programme has demonstrated how local markets can become engines of women’s empowerment and economic growth, not just places to buy and sell goods. Markets for Change operates on a simple premise: Support women’s leadership where they work—and dismantle the multiple obstacles that trap women in poverty.

Across the Pacific, women make up the majority of vendors in markets. They put fresh food on tables and make major contributions to local economies. But as members of a largely female and marginalized workforce, many have scrambled to survive. Women from rural areas may spend hours cultivating vegetables and making handicrafts before travelling far distances to reach markets in towns and cities, leaving them with only minimal profits.

The way markets are built and run adds to the challenges. While they offer a central place to sell goods, they may be crowded and poorly maintained, with significant security risks, including theft and sexual harassment. High fees apply even for basic facilities, like using the bathroom. The municipal councils that oversee the markets typically have limited involvement in market operations and little awareness of women’s concerns.

In the past, women had little or no say in how markets were managed. Vendors came and went, enduring poor conditions for generations, feeling powerless to make changes.

That began to change when UN Women introduced market vendor associations to unite women and amplify their voices. The impact was immediate and powerful. Women began imagining a different future for their markets, and started negotiating to make it happen.

“I want every vendor to be seen, heard, and supported”, says Viti Daunibau, elected Vice President of the Nausori Market Vendors Association in Fiji. She decided to run for election after participating in Markets for Change training forum. “That forum showed me the power of collective action.”

Iata, a mainstay at the Port Vila central market in Vanuatu, learned to save, manage her budgets, and how to cope with the frequent cyclones that ravaged the area. Her savings kept her in business even as supply lines struggled to recover. Moreover, she did not just rebuild her own business, she taught everything she learned to four single mothers in her community.

“Helping them succeed—that was the real reward”, she says. “Now their children have more support, and they have hope.”

In every market supported by Markets for Change, vendor associations have become a trusted link between women and municipal councils; women vendors are more aware of their rights and confident. The results: markets that are safer, cleaner, and more profitable for women.

Applying new skills in advocacy and communications acquired through the programme, the associations have secured improved ventilation and lighting, refrigeration for perishable goods, and modernized toilets. Security measures, such as fences and CCTV cameras, have cut risks of theft and harassment.

In a region at high risk of climate-related disasters, some markets have begun applying stricter building codes to withstand a Category 5 cyclone and to mitigate damage from strong winds and flooding. The market infrastructure is also more accessible and gender-inclusive.

Women vendors who often travel long distances to reach the markets—traveling for up to seven hours by boat and dirt roads—and must stay overnight, finding accommodation was long a chronic concern. The only affordable option was sleeping on the ground in their modest market stalls. Through the market associations and municipal councils, 10 markets in Fiji have now established simple accommodation centres where they have safe, clean rooms to rest. The centres also offer multi-purpose areas for meetings and training sessions for women vendors.

Markets for Change provides training to help women improve their businesses. In partnership with local banks, vendors have gained financial literacy skills, learned how to save and invest, and adopted new techniques for cultivation, customer service, and display. The result: stronger sales, greater profits, and renewed confidence.

Today, in the bright, organized stalls in markets supported by Markets for Change, a new level of confidence is palpable as women set up their wares, smile and greet their customers, and carefully note sales in their registers. The money they earn will send their children to school, repair their homes, and expand their livelihoods.

At a meeting of the market vendors association in Suva, Fiji, long-time vendor Shobna Verma drew loud applause when she said, “We can run the house, we can run the business with great success!”

By finding their voices, women are redefining the markets of the Pacific—on their terms. And UN Women is with them, every step of the way.