- Handcraft artisans in Kenya have over time been exploited by profit-sapping middlemen who set costs for them.
- In accordance with the Kenya Financial Survey Report 2023, the Jua Kali sector contributed 25% of the GDP, an identical contribution fee to that of agriculture.
- One of many challenges that the engagement is trying to handle is the disparity in pricing for related merchandise, relying on the place they’re made.
Expertise and schooling are remodeling the lives of Kenyan handmade craft artisans, providing new alternatives for progress, sustainability, and international market entry. Artisans, who historically relied on native markets and restricted sources, are actually tapping into digital platforms and skill-building packages to develop their attain and enhance their livelihoods.
The combination of tech options, together with e-commerce platforms, social media advertising, and digital fee methods, has enabled artisans to showcase their merchandise past Kenya’s borders.
Platforms reminiscent of Etsy, Fb, and Instagram are being utilized by craft makers to promote handmade items reminiscent of jewellery, textiles, and wooden carvings to worldwide patrons, boosting gross sales and visibility.
Moreover, academic packages concentrating on artisans have empowered them with digital literacy, enterprise administration expertise, and monetary literacy. Organizations such because the Kenya Craft Improvement Programme (KCDP) and partnerships with international e-commerce gamers are coaching artisans on the way to leverage on-line instruments, create sustainable enterprise fashions, and enhance product high quality.
Via these initiatives, artisans are usually not solely studying the way to market their work but additionally gaining vital expertise in pricing, product growth, and buyer relations.
In accordance with the Kenya Financial Survey Report 2023, the Jua Kali sector contributed 25 per cent of the GDP, an identical contribution fee to that of agriculture.
“The position of the Jua Kali sector within the financial system can’t be underestimated, aside from creating jobs, Jua Kali merchandise are exported to the neighboring counties thereby fetching overseas alternate for the financial system,” Kenya Nationwide Chamber of Commerce and Trade (KNCCI) President Erick Rutto mentioned in the course of the launch of the first-ever Jua Kali sector strategic plan 2022-2027.
The house décor and handicrafts trade, a bit of the Jua Kali sector, stays casual with no much-needed consideration from the federal government regardless of offering a variety of employment alternatives for hundreds of Kenyan youth.
Handcraft Artisans in Kenya
The nation hosts a number of the most celebrated handcrafters, starting from Nubian ladies, who ply their commerce in Kibera, Maasai ladies weaving baskets in Kajiado, Kitenge makers in Mombasa, artisans in Narok making their craft from wooden carvings and from Kambas from Makueni who’ve specialised in carvings from limestones.
To safeguard the artisans from exploitation by middlemen, the social enterprise group Powered by Individuals is coaching the unskilled artifact makers with registered companies on the way to add worth to their merchandise and worth them proper.
The organisations co-founder, Hedvig Alexander, says that to handle this problem, they’ve unveiled a global commerce present, The Artisan Soko, in Kenya to assist artisans develop their attain to international markets and enhance the worth of their merchandise.
It will see the organisation practice native artisans and small-scale producers from Kenya and hyperlink them up with international markets, significantly in North America and Europe.
“We wished to create this occasion to assist native producers join with worldwide patrons and see how they’ll scale up. The occasion not solely attracts worldwide patrons but additionally encourages native participation, highlighting the significance of Kenyan craftsmanship,” mentioned Alexander.
Powered by Individuals’s group and engagement supervisor, Robert Mwehe, who spoke in Nairobi in the course of the Artisan Sokoan expo that introduced collectively artisans from throughout the nation, mentioned one of many key problems with concern is the exploitation of much less skilled artisans by intermediaries.
“We launched digital catalogs that permit artisans to show their merchandise and set costs straight, offering them with extra management and decreasing the probability of exploitation,” mentioned Mwehe. He added that these efforts are designed to make handmade merchandise—like woven baskets and vases—extra seen and accessible in international markets.
Regardless of these efforts, he acknowledged that extra must be executed to create a authorized framework that protects artisans and permits them to maximise the potential of their craft.
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Disparity in pricing
For example, one of many challenges that the engagement is trying to handle is the disparity in pricing for related merchandise, relying on the place they’re made. Along with pricing, this system additionally goals to enhance artisans’ capability to inform the tales behind their creations, which has develop into more and more essential to worldwide patrons.
“Consumers need to know the story behind the product – the place it got here from, the way it was made, and the impression it has on the artisan’s group,” Mwehe added.
An advocate for the made in Kenya and artisan sector Goodie Odhiambo says that the handcraft trade is but to be understood.
“The artisan sector may be very advanced as a result of each product has its uncooked supplies for each product. All we are able to do is educate the artisans to enhance the standard and be taught as they have interaction with the patrons on what’s the fitting costs,” mentioned Odhiambo.
“We’re utilizing this platform to have the ability to educate them such that they don’t simply must search for a product and determine that is the value, they’ve to have the ability to justify how they got here to the pricing,” she added.
By bettering product high quality and market entry, the initiative goals to raise Kenyan craftsmanship on the worldwide stage and create a sustainable round financial system.
Plans for the longer term embrace customising merchandise to satisfy the wants of native lodges and different companies, making certain that artisans are protected and their items are priced pretty.
“We purpose to assist artisans at each degree,” mentioned one of many undertaking leaders. “From conventional masks to jewellery, leather-based merchandise, footwear, and baggage, we have now a variety of choices prepared for worldwide markets,” mentioned Alexander.
To deal with this challenge, the group has applied a coaching program for artisans specializing in product growth, high quality management, and pricing methods.
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Value of supplies
Mwehe emphasised the significance of educating artisans the way to think about the price of supplies, labour, packaging, pricing, and delivery to satisfy worldwide requirements to reach at a good worth for his or her merchandise.
This system is designed to assist artisans from all ability ranges, together with refugees and folks with disabilities, by connecting them with alternatives to showcase their handmade items.
A key focus of the initiative is to formalise and promote the artisan sector, which has been largely neglected regardless of its important contribution to the Kenyan financial system.
Coaching packages have already reached over 8,000 ladies, specializing in product high quality, costing, pricing, and storytelling.
Financing to buy uncooked supplies
The initiative additionally offers artisans with buy order low-interest financing to buy uncooked supplies for his or her orders. It additionally offers low-interest loans to companies, serving to them develop and develop.
Over the previous two years, PBP has generated over $1 million so as worth exports for Kenyan artisans, reaching roughly 50 corporations and near over 14,000 individuals. Of which 80% are woman-led.
Alexander mentioned that by their strategic partnership with the Jiinue Development Programme, PBP has been in a position to leverage grassroots organisations, Kenya Nationwide Chamber of Commerce and Trade (KNCCI), GROOTS and the Kenya Personal Sector Alliance (KEPSA) to drive coaching and capacity-building efforts.
It’s estimated that by formalising the artisan sector it should unlock the huge potential of the worldwide handmade market, which is valued globally at round $1 trillion (Sh129 trillion). The enterprise’s aim is to develop its attain to three,500 micro-businesses and SMEs within the coming years by financing and digitalization efforts, supporting artisans in turning into self-sustaining and globally aggressive.
