Markets for Change (M4C) — Women's Leadership & Safety in Solomon Islands' Marketplaces

Markets for Change (M4C) is a multi-country programme implemented by UN Women with UNDP, funded principally by the Government of Australia (DFAT) with additional support from Canada and New Zealand, operating in Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands since 2014 (Samoa added later). In Solomon Islands it works in Honiara Central Market, Auki Market (Malaita Province), and sites in Gizo, Munda and Buala, where roughly 75-90% of vendors are women; before M4C, no formal Market Vendors Associations (MVAs) existed in the country.

To build women vendors' leadership, safety and market infrastructure, shifting market governance from largely male-dominated decision-making toward women-led Market Vendors Associations.

Combines physical infrastructure upgrades — such as the March 2021 Auki market renovation adding concrete slabbing, drainage, expanded vendor space and a security fence — with governance and skills training: a 32-vendor food-safety and hygiene course in Auki (2017), leadership/financial-literacy workshops for 60+ vendors in Honiara, a five-province Market Vendors Forum in Honiara (June 2024, 80+ representatives), and a value-adding training of trainers for 20 vendor representatives across Munda, Gizo, Auki and Honiara (July 2025).

The Australian Government committed roughly AUD 1 million in supplementary funding for the Solomon Islands component (2017-2019), part of a six-year regional initiative whose combined Fiji/Solomon Islands/Vanuatu budget exceeded US$11 million. Independent ANU research (Keen & Ride, 2018) surveyed 189 vendors (84% women) at Honiara's unregulated community markets and found these sites remain largely outside the reach of M4C's infrastructure and governance improvements, despite generating an estimated US$10-16 million a year in value with women earning roughly 90% of that income.

Most published M4C outcome statistics are aggregated across Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu rather than broken out by country, and no independent Solomon-Islands-specific impact evaluation was found publicly; achievements should be read as programme-reported, alongside credible but limited independent academic corroboration.