Swaziland’s handcraft industry broadly falls into the two categories of formal and informal. The formal sector comprises highly structured and professionally operated businesses that are often export-oriented and which produce a wide diversity of worldclass goods for local, regional and global markets. They include textiles, jewellery, ornamental candles and hand-made glassware. These operations have established firm global markets and are suppliers to many exporters. They also play a crucial role in job creation. However, there is much room for expansion in the handcraft s e c t o r , particularly for the players in the informal category. These are talented people, mainly selfemployed women, who often possess little business knowledge and are hampered by lack of contacts, relying on passing trade and tourists who buy from roadside stalls and small shops. Further, due to lack of training, their goods may not meet international market requirements and, in any case, they cannot individually produce sufficient quantities to interest bulk buyers. Organisations, such as Gone Rural in Malkerns have taken the initiative by employing rural women who work at home producing colourful traditional baskets and other decorative items. They are supplied with materials, thus eliminating the need to invest their much-needed cash, and also receive the training that ensures the goods they produce meet required standards. Collectively, these women can produce sufficient quantities to meet the needs of international buyers, with whom their mentors deal.
The Swaziland Trading House - Swazi Market
The Swaziland Trading House (STH) is an initiative for enterprise development and employment creation through the development of cultural industries. It is funded jointly by the Swaziland sbyb 2009 text 126-168.p65 130 12/10/2008, 8:20 PM 131 Government and the WK Kellog Foundation. Undertakings involving handcrafts have been identified as being among the key industries with export potential, mainly benefiting rural women and the youth. However, this sector has been undermined by the serious challenges of lack of appreciation of the potential of their crafts to change their economic status and livelihoods. The quality of products created through Swaziland’s ancient skills and traditions has drawn the attention of strategic commercial buyers both locally and globally. The aim of the STH is to develop this commercial interest in Swazi craft into a strategy that will translate into the production of exportready, high value products. It also aims to provide marketing infrastructure by setting up retail outlets in appropriate markets, hence moving craft producers higher up in the value chain. The rationale of prioritising handcraft centres is on the ability of exportready crafts to generate sustainable job opportunities in rural areas, especially as a means of addressing unemployment, poverty and the effects of HIV/AIDS. Through a process of phased growth, the services of the Swaziland Trading House is deversifying to other areas with similar potential, such as value-added agricultural products, leather ware, cotton clothing, knitwear, furnishings and wooden products.