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Crafters get mobile tech boost

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 08 Aug 2011

The Africa Craft Trust, in cooperation with Women's Net and Open Africa, is implementing a Mobile Technology for Craft Enterprise Development Programmethat will run from 2011 to 2013 in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal.

The programme seeks to assist rural craft entrepreneurs to grow their business by using mobile phones and other information and communication technologies.

According to the Africa Craft Trust, the programme will be rolled out in two phases. It says phase one involves research and development.

“Research and community involvement in the three provinces has already been completed and by 2012, the programme will have completed the development of new mobile phone software, combining a financial management tool, costing and pricing tool, and buyer's database storage system,” it says.

It notes that added features include an SMS service that will link the users to up-to-date information relevant to their businesses, a networking and chat-room space for craft entrepreneurs, and marketing links on the Open Africa tourist routes.

Phase two, the trust says, involves implementation, capacity building and evaluation. “The programme will roll out the new application, tools and train the craft entrepreneurs in using the software.

“In addition, the trust will conduct business skills workshops and monitor and evaluate the programme results,” says Lauren Barkume, Africa Craft Trust's programme operations manager.

She says the main beneficiaries of the programme are women crafters from low income, under-resourced rural and peri-urban areas.

The organisation says the past nine years of working experience by the Africa Craft Trust have illustrated that most women crafters are the sole breadwinners or main financial support for extended households. “While other sources of income are without doubt farming and social grants, craft provides alternative sources for income, especially during the off farming periods.”

Barkume says the Africa Craft Trust has already completed all the provincial assessments and is in the process of updating the Open Africa Tourist routes.

“During the assessments, we found that there was both an interest in the application and an expressed need for greater access to information and markets. Part of this programme is to develop an SMS service, delivering important information to craft sector subscribers about market opportunities, funding opportunities, and business tips and advice.”

Describing the challenges that the trust has faced in rolling out the programme, Barkume says educating the women has been one of the biggest problems. “We deal with people in very remote areas and teaching them how to use cellphones has been a challenge since some of them are illiterate and communicating with them in English was problematic.”

The majority of rural crafters are older women, she explains, some with low levels of literacy. “They often use their family and children to help them use their phones to receive and send SMSes.

“However, we have initiated some training programmes for these beneficiaries,” she says, adding that the training has been put into categories where the trust teaches some beneficiaries to use the phone applications. “These beneficiaries, in turn, will teach their colleague how to make use of the phones.”

She adds that the majority of cellphones used by crafters in rural areas are very basic and sometimes old with little memory. “This has been a challenge in designing applications. Other limitations, she says, include electricity constraints, as most of the places they are working in do not have power to charge the mobile phones.

However, Barkume notes that this is a particularly exciting programme because it is the first time a cellphone application has ever been developed for the craft sector.

“Mobile technology has been applied to several fields of development, including agriculture and health, to much success. We are excited to be piloting an application which could potentially have worldwide use.”

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