Trainers upgrade vendors’ business skills

The economic empowerment of women is crucial in developing strong societies and strong economies.

Continuing Market Business Education (CMBE), designed to build the financial literacy and business competencies of market vendors, especially women, and enable them to access financial services will be at the Levuka Market today.

CMBE training sessions with women market vendors are conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with local governments, UN Women, and regional banks, as part of the UN Women’s Markets for Change project.

A UN Women project, Markets for Change is implemented in partnership with UNDP and supported by the Australian Government. “Municipal markets in Fiji provide an important space for thousands of small business people from both urban and rural communities, to trade as market vendors,” Veronika Manoa said. “Women make up most of these vendors, many of whom face challenges in accessing appropriate financial services that can help strengthen their businesses and protect their income against unexpected shocks such as natural disasters or a death in the family,” she said. “The training programme, CMBE is designed to build the financial literacy and business competencies of market vendors, especially women, and enable them to access financial services.” CMBE is offering learning under two rounds: Round 1: Basic Financial Literacy and Round 2: Improve your Market Business.