The problem
We are implementing “Traditional Artisan Inclusion” which is a new model scalable across Africa. Traditional artisans are the poorest production group where individuals live on less than US$ 2 per day, undefined and forgotten in the mainstream economy yet their artisanal heritage is the only resource they have. In Africa, cultural assets and artisanal skills are largely trapped in informal practice, lacking capacity support for market. Globally, 60% of the workforce is in informal sector as ILO estimates 300 million people to be underserved as home workers who predominantly include traditional artisans.
The strategy
Handmade heritage universally provides the first and basic livelihood skills, shared and transmitted within communities and across generations and remains a fallback when human technical and physical vibrancy fails. It is universally biggest basic livelihood sector, second to agriculture but it is superior to agriculture in overcoming effects of deprivation and technical, literacy and physical limitations and hence it embodies the highest possibilities of human socio-economic resilience. By innovating inclusive artisanal mobilization strategies and training tools to reclaim productivity and social relevancy among the most incapacitated like the elderly, the chronically ill, the illiterate and persons with disabilities and the most resource-deprived like the stateless, the refugees, the landless, the displaced, the indigenous people and the underserved remote rural and urban slum population, the model demonstrates undiscovered potential of the artisanal sector to drive universal economic inclusion. A natural space that maximize human imagination and creativity, the model unfolds the hidden potential of artisanal sector to provide a springboard for inclusive and grassroots-based innovations.
Number of entered partnerships with artisan support programs
WHERE WE ARE
Growing earned revenue
Growing capital contribution
Contracted online marketing platforms
Engaged international wholesalers
Annual international craft tradeshows subscribed to
Skilled master artisans mobilized
Raw material sources established
Number of incubation, accelerator and fellowships enrolled in
Founding history and incorporation
African Continental Crafts (ACCL) is a for profit social enterprise, first incorporated in Uganda on the 16th December, 2021. Registration No. 80020003417576. Tax identification No. 102030690, subsequent incorporation in other targeted countries is underway.
Product Development
Using ancestral wisdom, knowledge, artisan skills and and cultural materials to transform the economy of the grassroots through product development, design innovations and digital marketing solutions to access the global market in Europe and US and achieve equity and inclusion.