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Support Women's Economic Empowerment: Partners Improving Markets – Making Marketplace Safe for Women in the Pacific

        

 

This International Women's Day UN Women Australia is focusing its fundraising efforts on supporting the Partners Improving Markets program, which is working to make marketplaces safe for women in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Trading in fresh food markets is the only opportunity for many women in the Pacific to participate in the urban economy with women representing 85 per cent of vendors - the majority coming from rural areas.

Women in the Pacific often face unsafe working conditions such as a lack of adequate hygiene facilities and essential infrastructure such as lighting and sewerage, putting them at risk of illness, violence and harassment.

Female vendors are also subjected to aggressive tactics from market managers to obtain taxes, and are continually exposed to bullying, harassment and use of violence by middlemen who buy their produce for resale at unfair prices.

Aims of the Partners Improving Markets program
The aims of the Partners Improving Markets program include:
• Empowering women vendors to demand accountability from government through education, dialogue and advocacy training;
• Facilitating the organisation of women vendors' and forums;
• Conducting gender-sensitive training with government leaders and employees; and
• Creating a partnership between local government and women vendors to improve marketplace conditions.

Learn more about the IWD 2012 Project - download the IWD 2012 Factsheet. 
 
With your support
With your support on International Women's Day 2012, together we can raise awareness and increase economic security for women across the Asia Pacific region by helping improve their workplace conditions. You can lend your support to this year’s campaign by donating, buying a purple ribbon, hosting a fundraising event, or attending one of UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day events across Australia. For events information click here.

Key Facts:
• 70 per cent of the world’s poor are women.
• Women earn less than 10 per cent of the world’s wages, but do more than two thirds of the world’s work.
• Women reinvest 90 per cent of their income into their families whilst men invest only 30-40 per cent.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, women own less than 2 per cent of the land, but produce more than 90 per cent of the food.
• Agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa would increase by up to 20 per cent if women’s access to resources such as land, seed and fertilizer were equal to that of men.

The aims of the Partners Improving Markets program include:• Empowering women vendors to demand accountability from government through education, dialogue and advocacy training;• Facilitating the organisation of women vendors' and forums;• Conducting gender-sensitive training with government leaders and employees; and• Creating a partnership between local government and women vendors to improve marketplace conditions.Learn more about the IWD 2012 Project - download the   With your support on International Women's Day 2012, together we can raise awareness and increase economic security for women across the Asia Pacific region by helping improve their workplace conditions. You can lend your support to this year’s campaign by donating, buying a purple ribbon, hosting a fundraising event, or attending one of UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day events across Australia. For events information • 70 per cent of the world’s poor are women.• Women earn less than 10 per cent of the world’s wages, but do more than two thirds of the world’s work.• Women reinvest 90 per cent of their income into their families whilst men invest only 30-40 per cent.• In Sub-Saharan Africa, women own less than 2 per cent of the land, but produce more than 90 per cent of the food.• Agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa would increase by up to 20 per cent if women’s access to resources such as land, seed and fertilizer were equal to that of men.