Agaseke Craft

AGASEKE PROMOTION PROJECT IN THE CITY OF KIGALI

 A Women’s Economic Empowerment Project

  1. Background:

Agaseke Promotion Project is a Rwandan Handcrafts making Project established in 2007 by the City of Kigali, with support and partnership of Imbuto Foundation and the then Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA) now merged to be Rwanda Development Board (RDB). The vision for the Project is to provide an opportunity for vulnerable, unemployed and landless women of City of Kigali by supporting them to create their own employment and sustainable livelihoods thereby redeeming themselves and their families out of extreme poverty.

In Rwanda most of the people below the poverty line are women. After the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda majority of women lost their male breadwinners and as a result many were forced to be the heads of households. Majority of these are uneducated and do not have any skills which makes it difficult to find formal employment to sustain themselves and their families.

Some of the women targeted under the Project were widows and sex workers in the City of Kigali, others were involved in hawking fruits and vegetables by the City streets. Women sold their products at give away prices and this kind of business hardly supported their basic needs. In addition, hawking is an illegal business activity in the city; Agaseke Promotion Project therefore, was initiated as an answer to these problems.

The project encourages women and girls to get organized in cooperatives so that it is easier to provide them with the support they need. Since its inception, more than 50 cooperatives have been formed in all the three districts of City (Gasabo, Kicukiro and Nyarugenge).

  1. Project Rationale:

In the discussions of development issues there has lately been little disagreement about the importance of supporting women. Women are seen as the main carrying force of any society’s economy. The future of the children relays highly on the capacity of the mothers to maintain a certain minimum standard of living and education. The programs that include income generating and health education for the women end up directly benefiting the children and the whole family at large. Therefore, any formal or informal program or project that deals with supporting women is a major investment into the future of a nation.

  1. Objectives of the Project:

General Objective

The over all objective of the project is to economically empower women and girls through skills development to improve their livelihoods and that of their families.

Specific Objectives

  1. To equip women and girls with weaving and life skills that will enable them to create own jobs and earn sustainable income.

  2. To create a pool of professional handicraft women weavers in the City of Kigali who will act as lead producers for other parts of the country.

  3. To build women’s and girls’ capacities to become entrepreneurs.

  4. To create more employment and reduce poverty among women and girls.

  5. To use the project as a tool to promote peace, unity and reconciliation through working together in cooperatives.

Achievements of Agaseke Promotion Project

  • More than 50 cooperatives comprising of 2000 (women and girls) members have been organised and trained in weaving different types of handcrafts, mainly the Rwandan traditional baskets (Agaseke and fruit baskets, table mats, wall hangings, earrings and necklaces). In addition to these, more training was offered to women in cooperative clusters: tailoring, tie and dye, weaving inyegamo and products from banana fibre among many others.

  • Ten simple production centres where women meet to weave were constructed in different sectors of the City. Also, with support from UN Women, 2 Kiosks were constructed to enable women access market for their finished products.

  • International market was secured in Japan through RUISE B, where an MoU to supply Agaseke products was signed and ran for 6 years.

  • About 1200 of the women weavers were trained in Reproductive health, SGBVs, Human rights and prevention/care of HIV/AIDS;

  • 6 green houses were constructed to supplement weaving with other income generating activities;

  • Over 750 women were trained in entreprenuership and business management skills

  • 500 women were trained in Vilagge Savings and Loan schemes (VSLs) where 88 saving groups were formed in most of the cooperatives.

  • Selected women weavers have attended different local, regional and international trade fairs to promote their products;

  • Construction of a Training and Promotional Center (Agaseke House) at Rebero Hill, Gatenga Sector is complete and operational.

With all these efforts, women who are actively engaged in weaving have their livelihoods visibly improved. Today most women under this project are able to earn as much as 120,000 frw per month. With more effort put in this project poverty would be considerably reduced in the majority of project beneficiaries.

Challenges:

  • Low education levels among project beneficiaries requiring constant capacity building in both soft and paractical skills;

  • More than the targeted vulnerables want to be included in the project yet resources are limited;

  • There is more production than the available market, hence the need for enhanced promotional efforts at both regional and international markets.

  • Affordability and preparation of raw materials is still an issue to many producers;

  • Accessabiity to the Agaseke house has been a challenge to Project beneficiaries to fully operationalise the facility.

Way Forward:

Agaseke Promotion Project has already demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing poverty especially among the vulnerable women and girls. It is in this regard that the City of Kigali is in the process of developing new strategies in order to improve more of women’s livelihoods through capacity building, strategic marketing and access to finance.

Operationalization of Agaseke Training and Promotional Center: This training and promotional center that has been constructed within the Kigali Cultural Village (Rebero Hill) has been completed and is about to be launched for public awareness. More capacity building will also be carried out at the center. This will include but not limited to marketing, entrepreneurship and business plan development.

Expanding the Market in Rwanda and beyond: It is planned that different strategies that will help to expand the market for Agaseke products in Rwanda and beyond will be employed. These will include Website development and maintenance, social media advertising, e-commerce as well as other marketing tools to enhance efforts to maximize sales from the craft products.

Resource Mobilization: Since inception of the Project, the City of Kigali has been involved in mobilizing funds for the Project.

The search is on for more development partners from both the Private Sector, Non Profit Organizations (NGOs), Embassies and UN agencies.

Contacts: AGASEKE PROPOTION PROJECT

City of Kigali

Kigali - Rwanda

Website: www.kigalicity.gov.rw

Mob: 0788673818/0788352162

E- mail: brukwavu@kigalicity.gov.rw and jmutware@kigalicity.gov.rw