Mission

Alleviating poverty by creating markets and jobs for rural men and women in Africa.

Challenge

To explain how AAA’s social impact changes throughout the arc of an artisan’s employment.

Research Activities

To assess the intensity of socio-economic impact on artisans in Rwanda and Uganda over time, we interviewed 123 artisans from 24 cooperatives. Our survey included questions regarding savings, healthcare, nutrition, income, and agency. We interviewed11 farmers to develop baseline knowledge for a similar population of villagers.

Key Findings:

1. Housing and savings are key indicators of long-term impact. Newly-employed artisans begin the process of saving income and aspire to own their own property. Longer-employed artisans are more likely to have increased their savings and constructed their own home. This indicates that the length of employment best predicts profound and lasting social impact on artisans and their families.
2. Artisan skill level predicts income. Some novice artisans earn a higher income than experienced artisans. An artisan’s skill level appears to be the most important factor that influences income, but other factors also play a role: weaving experience, hours committed to weaving, and willingness to try new designs.
3. Enhanced initiatives in skills training would benefit artisans and the enterprise. As the demand for new artisan products changes dynamically and broadens, artisans must continuously learn new, and sometimes challenging, designs. This can result in high rejection rates in quality control inspections. An enhanced skills training initiative would simultaneously enhance artisan productivity, socio-economic impact on artisans and their families, and support the efficient delivery of orders to AAA customers.

Weavers of Hope: Artisan Livelihood as a Path out of Poverty. This report analyzes and describes how employment length and artisan skill level influence the depth of AAA’s socio-economic impact. We include analysis about the spending habits of experienced artisans and the immediate socio-economic impact on newly employed artisans. This also includes recommendations to improve artisan productivity through enhanced skills training.