Pak: Ahan completes pilot projects

Lahore: The Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (Ahan), has completed the targeted pilot projects in all the provinces of the country to help reduce poverty and unemployment in the rural areas said Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) Chief Executive Officer Shahid Rashid.

Pakistan had a population of 156 million people and 68 percent of its population was still living in rural areas having multiple implications for overall economic growth. He said Pakistan needed to create diversified non-farm work opportunities in rural regions, in addition to agriculture and livestock to alleviate poverty.

The increasing rural-urban migration is also mounting pressure on the urban infrastructure and environment to provide non-traditional sources of income in the rural areas and small towns, he added. Shahid Rashid further said the federal government had implemented the Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (Ahan) project under the aegis of Smeda to achieve its target of employment generation through skill development in backward areas.

The project implemented since 2006 by Smeda/Ministry of Industries & Production is now able to envisage a visible impact on development of rural entrepreneurship, he said. The Ahan primary objective is to reduce poverty by supporting employment generation activities, economic growth, and enhancing competitiveness of the micro and small businesses in the rural and semi-urban areas.

The initiative aims at studying, indigenising and emulating OTOP of Thailand and OVOP (One Village One Product) of Japan and other similar income generation programmes for rural and semi-urban population with a perspective to identify the best practices and adopt them, he added.

So far, Ahan has initiated projects in all the provinces of Pakistan targeting poor producer groups, particularly women, engaged in making various products including handicrafts, embroidery of different categories, weaving, ornaments, wood-work, articles of daily use, decoration pieces etc. The project envisages making these products competitive for local, national and international markets by enhancing skills, innovation, design, technology, marketing and micro-financing in their manufacturing processes.

It is expected that these pilot projects, while helping Ahan to discern best methods to exploit this hidden potential, would also directly benefit poor crafts persons, women and wage-earners, that have the potential to take up higher level of commercial activity and would result in increased employment and income-generating opportunities in the rural areas.

These measures are expected to incorporate value-addition in the products to be sold and would also improve commercial linkages between rural MSEs and the larger urban enterprises. In order to make these interventions successful, Ahan is co-ordinating with a large number of stakeholders in both public and private sectors, Smeda chief said.

Realising the needs of this support on long term basis, Ahan has recently been converted into a non-profit company by the government, which would continue activities on expiry of the project period to ensure sustainability and consolidation of work initiated by the Rural Enterprise Modernisation Project.

The Women Business Incubation Center (WBIC) that has already been inaugurated on 23 June displays Ahan's modern culturally representative products from the four provinces. These products are exclusively hand made; of premium quality and at reasonable rates.

They constitute different sectors such as textiles, jewellery, ceramics, wooden and leather products. The Smeda intends to support the corporate clientele with easily accessible hand made products and proposes for further co-operation for the uplift of the communities at the same time through this respective center, he added.