Lessons from the Field: ICTs and Handicrafts

Excerpts:

"In communities throughout the world, independent artisans create arts and crafts that reflect local culture, history, and tradition. Historically, these artisans have marketed their wares directly to local consumers, tourists and, through middlemen, to export markets. Upscale handicraft boutiques, art galleries, and specialty import stores pay high prices for traditional arts and crafts, but to reach these markets, local artisans have had to work with middlemen who mark up the prices significantly, leaving the local producer with a fraction of the profit. With the spread of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), however, these artisans are beginning to have access to tools that give them a competitive alternative.

One of the more intuitive applications of ICTs in the artisan sector is the creation of online stores that sell goods over the Internet. In fact, the most widespread ICT-enabled handicrafts projects remain e-commerce and Internet marketing platforms. Many of the more well-known platforms offer typical goods from artisans throughout the world, while smaller sites have emerged to serve niche markets, often with a skills training and capacity building component in addition to a pure business profit motive. In order to better serve its growing network of handicraft producers, PEOPLink developed a free, user-friendly, catalog-generation software appropriate for low-bandwidth connections in developing countries. Called CATGEN, the e-commerce platform allows trading partners to retain autonomy over what products and content are displayed online. Some initiatives are providing business support services to local artisans...

...Through a network of local "trading partners," PEOPLink equips and trains artisans to use ICTs for product marketing. The artisans are trained to use digital cameras and software that allows them to place product photos on catalog Web sites. PEOPLink also trains artisans to upload stories about their handicrafts, giving customers a more personal connection with the crafts and their local origins...

E-commerce and Internet marketing represent windows into untapped markets for artisans from less developed countries. When these artisans try to tap into these resources individually, however, they often fail due to high fixed costs and low profit margins. A number of handicraft NGOs have begun to harness the power of ICTs in response to this problem. The results of these efforts are so-called "clustering" projects. In India, for example, the NGO IndiaSocial is the sponsor of an ongoing effort to link artisans in the same field, such as woodcarving, glassware, and brassware, to achieve economies of scale through clustering. Artisans receive ICT training and learn the marketing importance of advertising the social, historical, and cultural roots of their crafts via their cluster...

Many crafts producers are low-income women, whose use of ICTs for marketing and sales allows them to transcend traditional gender roles that often prevent them from leaving the house. One such program is the Nepal-based HipKnit, which teaches rural, low-income women important business and computer skills, enabling them to market their hand-knitted sweaters and other items over the Internet..."

Click here for the full article on the World Resources Institute Digital Dividend site.