Aid to Artisans

Building on the successes and lessons learned from Aid to Artisans’ programs in Africa and with textile-producing communities around the world, with the West Africa Cotton Improvement Program (WACIP), ATA intends to expand income-generating opportunities for cotton-producing communities by enhancing strategic market access, improving product offerings, and building business management capacity.
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ATA targeted artisans whose activities could be harnessed to add value to domestically produced or processed cotton and/or who reside within cotton-producing regions thereby contributing to rural economies. Artisans in the C-4 countries continue to innovate with, unique treatments and embellishments, from indigo and bogolan dyeing techniques in Mali, to appliqué in Benin depicting the conquests of the ancient kingdom of Abomey, and woven cotton wrappers in Burkina Faso.

Accomplishments

• 2 regional training workshops in Mali and Benin were sponsored in French on production efficiency, quality control and design, benefiting 34 artisan enterprises from Benin, Mali, Chad, and Burkina Faso.
• 874 artisans living in these four countries are benefiting from this project among which about 79% are women.
• 2 international design consultancies were arranged and the programs will help artisans take part in major international and regional trade shows such as the Salon International Artisanal de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on October 31st, 2008
• Handmade textiles from 16 Artisan enterprises were represented at the New York International Gift Fair on August 16th , 2008.
• 2 local designs coordinators provided technical support to 13 artisan enterprises in Mali and Burkina Faso in developing new product designs and new samples.

Contributors
ATA would like to thank the following organizations for providing funding for efforts in the West African region:
International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)
United States Agency of International Development (USAID)