Hyper-local Manufacturing on the Final Frontier
As part of our series of “fireside chats”, Amneh Shaikh-Farooqui of Polly & Other Stories and Afshan Abbas of Fuchsia Shoes conversed from opposite sides of the globe about the artisans of Pakistan, the final frontier for impact investors, how their companies managed to gain momentum during COVID, and what they need to reach their goals.
Crossing the Digital Divide: Opportunities to Scale Impact in the Artisan Sector
R.I.S.E. Artisan Fund invited Hedvig Alexander, co-founder of Powered by People, and Priya Krishnamoorthy, founder and CEO of 200 Million Artisans, to share their perspectives and recent research on opportunities in the artisan sector. Their conversation focused on the best ways to use digital technologies to scale the sector and create greater economic opportunities for artisan producers.
Reimagining the Artisan Sector
The artisan sector is the second-largest employer in the developing world after agriculture, worth over $32 billion every year according to the Artisan Alliance. Artisan activity creates jobs, increases local incomes, and preserves cultural traditions that in many places are at risk of being lost. Over 65% of artisan activity takes place in developing economies.
The majority of artisans are small producers – often women – working informally which too often means this is an overlooked, undervalued and underfunded economic sector with still untapped potential.