Ministry of Industries, Production and Special Initiatives has decided to change "The AHAN - Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (One village one product, Pakistan)" status to an independent, non-profit company after realising its tremendous potential in terms of work scope.
Therefore, it will have a wider scope of network in terms of enhanced outreach, increased number of pilots, new dimensions for marketing and product development, etc, said official sources.
As part of future initiatives; Smeda sources stated that consultants are being hired for conducting research leading to sub-sector studies for identifying potential areas of growth and expansion, monitoring and evaluation and baseline studies for impact assessment of pilot projects. This would make the projects more workable in the long run and consequently would provide concrete grounds to replicate successful models in other areas. AHAN may set up display outlets in all major cities supported by a broad distribution system.
AHAN may participate in an international exhibition at appropriate stage and to consider the option of establishing Craft Bazaars for existing products in one place as a test case so as to provide market access to poor artisans on regular basis. This bazaar may follow the "Dehli Haath" model of India.
An update Project Report of (AHAN), "One village one product, Pakistan" initiative of Government of Pakistan being implemented through Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) envisages enabling the rural businesses to access a range of business development services. The expected benefits are increased employment and income earning opportunities in the rural areas, particularly for wage earners, women and poor producer groups. It is expected that through these measures there will be increased value-addition in the products, improved commercial linkages between rural Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) and the larger urban businesses. Increased demand for goods and services will add to overall benefits. For this purpose, AHAN will develop an all-encompassing and comprehensive web portal.
Before developing such a web portal, AHAN initially requires the services of a software company/house to write the Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document after complete analysis of various initiatives, applications and functions of AHAN.
AHAN project was formally initiated in July 2006 after its approval by the Planning Commission. During a short period of one year it has actively started work in all four provinces in collaboration with Provincial / District Governments, RSPs, Microfinance Institutions and other stakeholders. The project has adopted two pronged approaches.
On the one hand it has started pilot projects in different clusters of artisans and poor producer groups while on the other hand it has also started research and analysis exercise to discover the potential in this area and to see how a long term strategy can be developed for creating sustainable income generation opportunities to a large segment of our society living in rural, semi urban and small cities and towns of Pakistan. The idea is to use a holistic approach at the grass roots level by creating synergies through network of rural enterprise initiatives.
THE PROJECT IS CATERING TO BOTH SUPPLY AND DEMAND SIDE: On Supply-Side, it aims at building on capacity of crafts persons, involving well-known designers, to produce contemporary products while assuring quality; and On Demand-Side, arranging/participating in exhibitions nationally & internationally, display set up, designers' outlets, developing linkages with exporters, etc.
AHAN recently initiated 25 pilot projects after completion of Phase-I of 4 pilot projects. Another 14 pilot projects are in pipeline. Hence, AHAN intends to provide assistance directly to more than 6,832 beneficiaries through its network of 44 pilot projects in all four regions. 58 percent of the beneficiaries are craftswomen, thereby ensuring adequate support to females of rural areas.
Official sources explained that AHAN encourages participation from stakeholders of the clusters. Budgets of ongoing pilot projects are being shared with respective partner organisations on an average of 40:60. This not only ensures ownership of the partners for pilot projects but also helps in sustainability of the activities after the project period is over.
Punjab is the country's most populous province, which may be divided into different zones on the basis of its cultural richness such as Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Punjab. Each zone is abundant in both highly and semi-skilled craftsmen. These craftsmen and women are proficient in making articulate hand made products. The range of these products include fabric, wood carved decoration pieces, footwear items, carpets, curtains (traditionally known as chiks), sport goods and surgical instruments etc.
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