“I wish I could join the contractors to build, so we can finish this market in one night,” Kalsum Ava, a market vendor, excitedly shares during the ground breaking ceremony for the new market in Yumbe district, Northern Uganda.

For the past 25 years Kalsum has managed a stall at the Lobe market in Kei sub-county, Yumbe district where she sells groceries like cassava, beans, onions and tomatoes. Lobe is a weekly makeshift market happening on Tuesday that serves the local and refugee communities in Yumbe as well as neighbouring South Sudan. For all this while, the market existed under the shelter of big trees, but sometimes this shelter was not sufficient. Kalsum narrates how she suffered losses due to harsh weather conditions: strong rains washed away her produce and excessive sunshine dried out fresh foods fetching a paltry sum from buyers. With no storage facilities available, Kalsum has to move her merchandise to and from her home every market day raising her transportation costs.

The refurbished market will address Kalsum and other vendors’ challenges as the new buildings with permanent stalls have provision for storage and other amenities such as space for breastfeeding mothers, a child care area and segregated bathroom facilities, which will improve working conditions.

“When designing this market, we put in extra consideration for women who are the majority of our vendors, we want to make them as comfortable as possible so they can work well. Here, the women are the ones fending for their families and as a district, we found it necessary to support them,” explains Mr. Yasin Mafu, LCIII Chairperson Kei Sub-county.

Out of a total of 390 vendors in three selected sub-counties of Kei, Kuru and Ariwa for market upgrades 90% are women who deal mainly in foodstuff. On average, each of them pay approximately three dollars a month for a space with a rack made out sticks to sell their merchandise. Although the current markets have some lockups, most women have been unable to access these due to high rent fees, which is more than double the rate of the improvised stalls. The lockups are predominantly occupied by men as they can afford the rent. Most men are engaged in the hardware and electronics business which has higher returns. To ensure the women are not left out of the new market either, the district has committed to a subsidized market fee for all vendors. The market design reflects the special needs of female vendors and facilitates their economic activities by adding toilet facilities and other amenities, such as spaces for breastfeeding and children playground. Moreover, the new markets create space and opportunities for female vendors to develop their business and management skills through participation in a market vendors’ society and a Market Management Committee linked to the Local Council to maintain the structures which will be developed by the project.

For Kalsum, this is good news, she is excited at the prospects of the new market. For the first time she can look forward to working in a secure indoor space: “When the market is finished, we can work easily everyday not only on Tuesday, whether it is raining or shining and this can bring in more money,” she reflects.

The district is equally excited as it expects the new markets to contribute to improved food security and increase the vendor’s income by at least thirty percent. In addition, the district anticipates a three-fold increase in revenue collection due to increased market dues, which are one of the main sources of revenue for local governments. With the existing informal structures there is presumed revenue leakage as there is no orderly system for tracking the free moving vendors and the district has been unable to collect full amount of fees owed. The modern markets provide an organized way of conducting business where vendors are assigned stalls which will ease follow up to achieve better collection and hopefully boost the district’s local revenue and support improved service delivery.

“The district will make more money as you also make more money from this new market, but please let us be diligent, pay your dues in time so no one is chasing after you after. This money is for building us, the community,” said Mr. Yasin Taban the District Chairperson at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new markets.

Yumbe is one of the refugee hosting districts, and this consideration is reflected in the market approach. Kuru Market located within Kuru town council will improve working environment not only for community vendors but also for refugees, many of whom move to urban areas and operate business as vendors in markets or engage in other informal trading activities. The Lobe market in Kei, were at least 500 refugee households have settled also provides better livelihood opportunities for them whereas Ariwa market located in Zone 5, refugee settlement will directly promote trade and business interaction for refugee and host communities.

The market refurbishments are financed through the first phase of grants under the Local Government Excellence Fund (LGEF), a discretionary performance-based grant facility managed by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to support district investments in local infrastructure for economic empowerment of women and young people including refugees. More projects are yet to be identified and developed in partnership with Yumbe District Local Government and the communities. The district will receive over UGX 300 billion to facilitate these projects in the four-year period of the program.

LGEF is a component of the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) a Government of Uganda programme funded by the European Union with oversight from the Office of the Prime Minister with the goal of consolidating stability, eradicating poverty and under-nutrition and strengthening sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development in Northern Uganda. UNCDF is supporting implementation of the programme.