LocationsAt Nadi Market, Adi Bale Kurunavanua is helping turn women’s economic participation into greater opportunity, voice and action
Women at the Heart of Economic Change
August 17, 2026
Nadi Market Vendors Association President, Adi Bale Kurunavanua with market vendors at a workshop in Nadi.
UNDP
Nadi, Fiji — When women show up at the market, they bring more than goods to sell. They bring livelihoods, household incomes, business experience, skills and knowledge of what their families and communities need.
For Adi Bale Kurunavanua, President of the Nadi Market Vendors Association, women’s economic empowerment starts with having the confidence, opportunities and support to make decisions about their livelihoods and their futures.
Earning an income matters. So does having the confidence, information, opportunities and collective voice to make decisions and shape the conditions in which women work.
“Women do not only talk or share ideas. When we see a need, we move and take action. As women, as mothers and as leaders, we understand what our families and communities need. We do not just wait for someone else to do it — we step forward and make it happen.”
— Adi Bale Kurunavanua, President, Nadi Market Vendors Association
From Earning an Income to Having Economic Agency
For many women in Fiji, markets are an important source of income and economic opportunity. Women vendors contribute to household livelihoods while managing businesses, caring for families and participating in community life.
Yet economic empowerment is about more than having a place to sell.
It is also about whether women have access to the information, skills, services, networks, infrastructure and decision-making spaces they need to strengthen their businesses and livelihoods.
Through the Markets for Change (M4C) Project, women market vendors are supported to access information, training, services and leadership opportunities that can strengthen their economic security and participation.
For Adi Bale, this support helps women move from simply being present in the marketplace to having greater confidence and agency over their economic lives.
Women’s Businesses Support Families and Communities
One vendor may struggle to have a concern heard. Organised vendors can turn that concern into a shared priority.
Through market vendors’ associations, women can come together to discuss the challenges they face, identify solutions and engage with those who make decisions affecting their working environment and livelihoods.
For Adi Bale, this collective approach is important because women vendors understand the realities of the market first-hand.
They know the challenges of running a business while supporting a family. They see where improvements are needed. And by organising, they are better able to move from identifying problems to acting on them.
“When women come together, we can identify the problem, discuss the solution and then take action. We don’t just sit and wait. We have to move forward and do what needs to be done.”
This is central to women’s economic empowerment: women need not only opportunities to earn, but also the agency and collective power to shape the conditions in which they earn.
Nadi Market Vendors Association President, Adi Bale Kurunavanua.
UNDP
Collective Action Can Strengthen Livelihoods
For individual vendors, challenges can sometimes feel difficult to address alone.
Working collectively through market vendors’ associations gives women a stronger platform to share experiences, identify common challenges and engage with stakeholders on issues affecting their livelihoods.
That ability to organise and act collectively gives women greater influence over the conditions in which they earn their livelihoods. It also shifts the way women vendors are seen and not simply as beneficiaries of economic development, but as business owners, leaders and partners with knowledge and experience that can help shape better marketplaces.
Building Confidence, Opportunity and Resilience
Women’s economic empowerment therefore requires more than increasing women’s participation in the economy.
It also means addressing the conditions that can limit their opportunities.
Through Markets for Change, efforts to strengthen market infrastructure and working conditions are combined with support for vendor capacity, leadership and gender equality.
The aim is to create marketplaces where women can work safely, access opportunities, strengthen their businesses and participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them. This matters because the impact reaches beyond individual vendors.
Women’s businesses support families, connect producers and consumers and contribute to local economies. Greater economic security can also give women more choices about their livelihoods and their futures.
For Adi Bale, confidence is an important part of that change.
“Women need to believe in themselves and be confident to speak. We already have the experience. We understand what our families and communities need. We just need to step forward, use our voice and take action.”
Her message carries particular significance for younger women. Seeing women running businesses, organising collectively and taking leadership roles can demonstrate that women have a place not only in the economy, but in shaping how economic opportunities are created.
When Women Earn, Lead and Act, Change Follows
What is happening at Nadi Market reflects a wider reality across Fiji and the Pacific.
Women are market vendors, farmers, fishers, entrepreneurs, workers and small-business owners. Their work sustains households and contributes to communities and local economies.
But the measure of economic empowerment cannot be income alone. It is also whether women can make decisions about that income, access opportunities, strengthen and sustain their businesses, influence the systems around them and build greater security for themselves and their families.
For women like Adi Bale, that change is strengthened when women organise, speak and act collectively.
At Nadi Market, women are doing more than selling goods.
They are earning livelihoods and supporting families, but they are also building networks, taking leadership and making their voices heard. That is where economic participation becomes economic agency — when women are not only part of the economy but have the opportunity and voice to help shape it.
About Markets for Change
Markets for Change (M4C) is a regional initiative aimed at improving the economic security and working conditions of women market vendors in Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands and Samoa. M4C focuses on strengthening market infrastructure, vendor capacity, and gender equality to create more sustainable and inclusive marketplaces.
The M4C project is implemented by UN Women in partnership with UNDP and with support from the Government of Australia.
For more information, please contact:
Vilisi Veibataki, Markets for Change Project Manager | UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji | (E) vilisi.veibataki@undp.org