More than 150 world leaders including leaders from Fiji will attend the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25-27 September in New York, to agree on 17 goals that will set the direction of development work worldwide for the next 15 years. The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals intend to achieve three extraordinary things; end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and fix climate change.
The Social Good Summit is being organized by people in over 65 countries around the world to launch the SDGs locally and take part in the global discussion about how communities are using the digital tools of today to build a brighter future.
The Sigatoka Town Council, UN Women and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will jointly host the Community Social Good Summit in conjunction with a session of the Continuing Market Business Education (CMBE) training for market vendors conducted as part of UN Women’s Market for Change project.
The CMBE attempts to build the financial literacy and business capacity of market vendors especially women market vendors to enable them to access financial services. The Round 1 ‘Basic Financial Literacy’ and Round 2 ‘Improve Your Market Business’ have been delivered at Sigatoka Municipal Market. Round 3 Business Seminars, which facilitates market vendors to use mobile phones to access financial services, will commence soon. The Community Social Good Summit in Sigatoka will provide forum for local citizens and market vendors to be informed of the SDGs, trained on the use of mobile technology and discuss how it will contribute further to achieving the Global Goals.
The Continuing Market Business Education and other training activities with market vendors are conducted by UNDP in partnership with the local governments, UN Women and Westpac, as part of the Markets for Change project. The trainings aim to improve and strengthen the financial literacy and business practice of market vendors, especially women.
The Markets for Change project is a six-year, multi-country initiative that aims to ensure marketplaces in rural and urban areas of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. A UN Women project, Markets for Change is implemented in partnership with UNDP and supported by the Australian Government and is a key contribution to the achievement, in the Pacific, of SDG 5 which focuses on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
What: Community Social Good Summit in Sigatoka
When: 10am to 12pm, Monday 28 September 2015
Where: Sigatoka Town Council Chamber
Who: Tulsi Ram, CEO, Sigatoka Town Council; senior civil servants; NGOs leaders; provincial leaders; Sigatoka citizens and market vendors; Aleta Miller, Representative, UN Women, and Osnat Lubrani, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative.
PRESS RELEASE