The main objective of the Vital Voices Women Artisan Product & Business Development Program is to provide indigenous handcraft women business leaders with product development, management, business development, marketing and communication skills to expand their businesses, create jobs in their communities and achieve a larger share of the international export market for their products.

The Vital Voices Artisan Program organizes intensive week-long workshops where participants are provided with expert training which includes modules on:

• Product design and development
• Packaging and Packing for Export
• Intellectual property rights
• Branding and marketing
• Export and international trade issues
• Costing and Pricing for Export
• Distribution in the United States, Europe or other countries throughout the Hemisphere. 

Participants learn from expert designers and marketers, as well as entrepreneurs who have developed successful businesses in this area.  During the program, experts and trainers evaluate samples of the artisan’s products for aesthetic appeal, quality standards and price points, and advise them on how to appeal to the global consumer in addition to their own local customers. These experts also assist participants to better understand the U.S. wholesale market as well as guide them through the process of export shipment.

The program also includes Talks given by successful handcraft business owners who share their challenges and success stories, to give the artisans a sense of all that goes into building a successful craft business.

Following the training program, the women artisans refine and expand their products and increase their production capacity to appeal to a wide-range of international wholesalers and retailers. Each woman has the opportunity to have her products reach a much wider market and has the ability to expand and grow her business. 

Vital Voices has run a successful model program in Africa, which was launched in January 2008.  Training workshops have been held in Ghana, Swaziland, South Africa and Kenya and has included artisan women leaders from 14 African countries.  Participants have already supplied several international orders. In partnership with Bridge for Artisans, a US-based non-profit Distributor, we present select artisans’ products to wholesalers at various trade shows in the U.S.  Bridge for Artisans participates in our trainings to evaluate products and help the participants better understand the U.S. wholesale market, as well as guide them through the process of export shipment.

In addition, Vital Voices connects seasoned international women entrepreneurs to act as ongoing mentors to the women artisans. The mentors continue to assist the artisans to develop appropriate products for the U.S. and other export markets and to cultivate excellent organizational management.

Vital Voices held an Artisan Track training workshop at the “Vital Voices of the Americas” Summit in Argentina in 2008. In 2010, we plan to roll out the Artisan Program into other global regions, beginning with Asia and Latin America. 

Collaboration between Artisan Program and Business Women’s Networks

As the program moves forward, the Artisan track will collaborate with Vital Voices Business Women’s Networks (BWN’s). Among other joint ventures, we plan to hold our training workshops in conjunction with the BWN meetings where possible. We will invite BWN members to attend our training program, the purpose being to educate the business-women about Handcraft sector-specific knowledge. Once completed, we will expect those BWN members to mentor their in-country artisan participants providing best business practices. We will encourage all of our Artisan group leaders to join their in-country BWN’s as well as encouraging B-to-B preferred vendor trade between artisan & BWN groups. We will invite BWN members to present training modules at our Artisan training workshops on Leadership and Mentorship. BWN’s will also be utilized to make recommendations for potential participants. 

For further information, please contact:

Zoe Dean Smith
Senior Director for the Global Women Artisan Export Development Program

zoedean-smith@vitalvoices.org