Members of market vendor associations have been urged to have proper representation in provincial, town and city councils to make their voices heard.
This was the message delivered by the University of Fiji vice-chancellor Professor Shaista Shameem at the International Day of Rural Women celebration hosted by the Lautoka Market Vendors Association on Friday.
Prof Shameem highlighted that a completely new world order was needed to provide support and comfort to women market vendors who sacrificed so much in order to enable people in office jobs to put food on the table for their own families daily.
“The town and city councils should take a good hard look at whether the amenities and facilities provided to market vendors were adequate in sanitation, clean water supply, a place where they could make their own tea, and wellbeing while they spent long hours in the market supplying fresh vegetables and produce to the public,” she said.
“Women market vendors for several years had seen themselves as critical agents of change in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition, but no one else seemed to give them the support they needed.
“The ad hoc policies which affected their representation in civic life were implemented without sufficient and meaningful consultation.”
She urged the Lautoka Women Vendors Association to lead the way in calling for their proper representation in town and city councils so that their work lives could improve as they took responsibility for feeding families in Fiji with cost-effective and nutritious produce daily, sacrificing their own needs along the way.
Prof Shameem said a new movement was being launched, called the Design for Life, which looked at rebalancing the world, ensuring resilience in all aspects of life, and actively planning regeneration and renaissance for the future.
“The movement had people, places and planet as its core values.
“This was the movement that the University of Fiji was fostering among civil society groups.”
She also noted the points made earlier this year at a Labasa Women Vendors workshop, where the women vendors and participants said they needed price control for vegetables from the suppliers.
This included better roads and infrastructure for easier access to markets, consultation before laws were passed that affected their work as market vendors, especially laws about adequate provincial, town and city council representation, access to proper and comprehensive information from the authorities, ramps in markets and other public places for people with disabilities and older women.
