The Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) has launched ‘Artisanal Showcase’, a platform to promote goods manufactured using traditional skills and knowledge, and create linkages between artisans and businesspersons.

The platform was inaugurated by Takuya Kamata, World Bank’s country manager for Nepal, on Friday.

The Artisanal Showcase is currently located at PAF Secretariat in Kalimati, Kathmandu. “For now, the Artisanal Showcase will only be used to display prototypes of artisan products created using traditional skills and knowledge,” Shree Ram Subedi, programme division chief at the PAF, said. “We will soon move to a new complex where commercial transaction of these products will take place.”

The PAF is an autonomous body chaired by the prime minister. It was established in 2003 to bring the excluded communities into the mainstream of development. The PAF works with 33,171 community organisations run by ‘the poor’ throughout the country, covering over 825,765 households. The Artisanal Showcase has put on display garments made out of allo, dhaka products, mud and wood crafts, structural lokta paper, materials made from sikki grass, and Mithila paintings. These products were produced by PAF-supported artisans of eight districts—Dailekh, Dang, Dhanusha, Gorkha, Kapilvastu, Lalitpur, Myagdi, and Terhathum. 

“The [platform] aims to connect skilled artisans with markets so as to raise income and improve living standard of poor artisans while also preserving traditional skills,” says a statement issued by the PAF. “The PAF also provides managerial support to artisans and helps build their capacity.” 

Currently, efforts are also underway to set up at least 10 common facility centres (CFCs) in eight districts, where artisans can work and modify their products. The CFCs will also help artisans gain access to market, says the statement.

So far, a total of 550 groups of artisans have been formed in eight districts covering nearly 8,000 artisans. Similarly, 186 prototypes have been developed so far, according to PAF statement.