Kaarvan Crafts is a “one-stop” shop for business development and fair trade marketing services serving women entrepreneurs in low-income communities. By focusing on strengthening the skills and business capacities of low-income women entrepreneurs, Kaarvan Crafts has contributed to the broadening of economic opportunities for female entrepreneurs so they can participate more effectively in markets and improve their economic realities.
1.The New Idea
Due to the remarkably high-quality products that Kaarvan produces, a new vision of women entrepreneurs from low-income communities is emerging. Kaarvan is forging the way into a new developing market that delivers high-quality products to high-end customers that are proud to purchase fair trade products with a social purpose. In the past, fair trade products have often been associated with poor quality, and for too long, consumers have had to choose between low-quality social purchases and high-quality traditional purchases. Kaarvan is changing this unappealing option and instead presenting a new more desirable choice that is targeted at high-end customers. Moreover, Kaarvan has contributed to a changing perspective that highlights the fact that women entrepreneurs from low-income communities are more than capable of producing complex high-quality items.
In addition to the innovative image shifting Kaarvan has contributed to, the foundation focuses heavily on developing new ideas at the delivery level as well. Kaarvan has for the first time, provided a sustainable and direct link between the village and the market by developing an open network of four fair trade shops under their Fair Trade Marketing Program. This marketing channel allows skilled women entrepreneurs in low-income communities access to enterprise development services while simultaneously marketing their products in high-income areas, which enables them to earn a fair return on the sales of their products. These shops are being run without any donor support or subsidized funding and have successfully linked thousands of women entrepreneurs directly to the markets. Previously, the general trend was for consumers to purchase products produced by women entrepreneurs simply because they wanted to support the social cause rather than for the desirableness of the products. Kaarvan shops promote the belief that quality should not be sacrificed and these products should be purchased because of their design, quality, and usefulness to the customers.
2.The Problem
Seventy-five percent of Pakistan’s one million women live in rural areas. Their skills, though broad, are not supplemented with technology, and their designs do not reflect fashion trends. Pakistan is one of the world’s poorest economies, and studies by CIDA have shown that the needs of the country’s women entrepreneurs are far from being met. Though recipients of micro-loans, they lack the micro-enterprise development knowledge necessary to make their businesses grow and flourish. This coupled with the fact that they are largely disconnected from markets only exacerbates this problem.
Products made by low-income entrepreneurs that do make it to market despite all the challenges often are of poor quality, which can often be more harmful than not reaching market at all. By attempting to sell poor quality products at the market, the reputation of the products that are produced by this sector suffers.
Kaarvan seeks to combat all these challenges through their new and innovative business model.
3.The Strategy
Kaarvan Crafts Foundation is a non-profit organization that specializes in helping Pakistani women entrepreneurs by turning traditional handicraft production into a steady income generating activity. Through Kaarvan’s facilities, women entrepreneurs are trained to build up their skills in learning how to make high quality products while simultaneously gaining knowledge in areas such as finance, business management and leadership. By giving marketing advice and selling products under the Kaarvan Crafts brand, women entrepreneurs gain access to sell their products in international and local markets.
By strengthening artisans' Business Development Supply Chains, Kaarvan is helping the women to expand their business knowledge and capacity. Kaarvan is developing a Business Advisory Services Program that will identify additional interested entrepreneurs, then build their business functions and work with them to further develop their skills, as the first step to provide them with effective access to markets.
Kaarvan Crafts will provide a “one-stop” shop for business development and fair trade marketing services for over 5,000 women entrepreneurs in low-income communities by 2010.
4.The Person
Aysha Saifuddin graduated as the 1991 Valedictorian of the Lahore American School in Pakistan. After Aysha completed her B.A. in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College in the United States she promptly returned to Pakistan to work in the field of development. After working in a local NGO, she became disillusioned with the work and decided pursue an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1998, with the hopes of learning skills that would help her develop long term stable solutions to development. She joined a leading microfinance organization in Pakistan called the Kashf Foundation as an Enterprise Development and Training Manager where she headed programs within the Kashf Foundation for the next five years. In 2003, the Board of Directors seeing the program growth and achievements decided to establish the Enterprise Development Department as a separate organization. Thus, under Aysha's leadership the Enterprise Development Department transformed into an independent organization, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation, a Not for Profit Company registered under Section 42 of the Companies Act.
Aysha's motivation for her work stems from her aspiration to alleviate poverty in Pakistan and to develop a sustainable blended model of business and social goals that benefit the poorest communities of Pakistan.
