Fact Sheet - Market Women at a Glance

Types of Marketers

• Producers Sellers: Farmers who sell produce, most often in rural weekly markets
• Wholesalers (Bulking intermediaries): Traders who bulk commodities bought from producers and transport them to other markets, often markets in Monrovia
• "Gbobachov" (Bulk-breaking intermediaries): Traders who buy from the wholesalers and sell in other markets to retailers
• Retailers: Traders who sell to consumers

• There are about 37,000 market women in Liberia, whose families often include six to eight children, many of whom have lost their fathers to war or AIDS
• Market women lack access to clean work environments, clean places to keep their children and sufficient profits to support education or healthcare for their children
• The children of market women generally grow up in the markets near their mothers. Toddlers run around playing with other children in the unsanitary conditions of the markets, lacking access to early childhood education or primary health care such as immunization and deworming
• Market women also lack access to credit except that which they themselves organize in their informal "su-su" groups (rotating savings and credit - ROSCA). While the creation of these round robin credit facilities illustrates market women's potential, the su-su groups are generally small and highly undercapitalized.Access to more capital would improve their capacities to create successful, sustainable businesses for themselves and their families.

• Markets can be categorized by their principal functions, including the type of sales (wholesale vs. retail), and frequency (daily vs. weekly)
• Daily and weekly markets have distinct functions and serve different sellers and buyers
• Sales in weekly markets are both wholesale and retail.
• Producers bring their produce for sale, most often to wholesalers (or bulking intermediaries). The full-time itinerant traders sell dry goods, primarily to the producers. Usually, the wholesalers, often from Monrovia, buy from the producers outside the market place
• The daily markets found in larger urban centers of rural Liberia and the neighborhoods of Monrovia, function primarily as retail markets, selling produce to a non-food producing population
• The Redlight and the Duala areas are both wholesale and retail and are the destination of most of the produce coming into Monrovia from rural Liberia or Guinea
• There are several other types of markets, including small "cluster" markets around urban centers, the "doorstep" or porch markets of single traders, and the street vendors or hawkers

• Approximately 75% of Liberians live below the poverty line of less than US$1 per day. 52% are estimated to live in extreme poverty, below US$.50 per day
• Unemployment in the formal sector is estimated at 85%
• 15% of rural households depend mainly on petty trade for their income, while 37% of households in Greater Monrovia rely on petty trade and street vending
• In Greater Monrovia, street vending/petty trading was the main source of income for 38% of women, while 30 % identified themselves as market women
• GDP per capita is estimated at US$ 191.50

1. By supporting the primary distributors of food and other basic necessities, SMWF's actions reach the roots of the economic life of communities and the nation and support the people's wellbeing.
2. SMWF is unique among women's funds because it embraces women's total work environment, including engineering the construction or reconstruction of markets, sanitary facilities, crèches, storage, etc while promoting their empowerment through education, training and access to capital. In contrast, the African Women's Development Fund, for example, finds its uniqueness in strengthening women's organizations through grants of from $1,000 to $40,000.
3. It is unique also by recognizing and supporting the markets for their function as community centres as well as trading locations.
4. Several organizations sponsor fund-raisers that benefit Liberia plus other countries; SMWF's contributions go solely and directly to Liberia market work.
5. SMWF has attracted the leadership and involvement of two globally celebrated women leaders - Mary Robinson, former UN Human Rights Commissioner and President or Ireland, and Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, who are lending their names and credibility to the work.