Coping with transition through organisation: Techiman Market,Ghana

This paper examines the effects of transition to a market-driven economic model upon the activities of women traders in Techiman Market, Ghana. The experience suggests that trading associations, with their regulation of trading relationships and social provision for members, can under specific conditions, preside over considerable expansion and innovation in the trading system with possible benefits for farmers and urban consumers. Some of those specific conditions are the result of government policy on infrastructural investment and price deregulation. The authors describe the background of Techiman Market, women traders' organizations, indigenous traders' associations, the control of trade, social support networks, and externally-funded alternative organizations.