One of Africa’s underdeveloped but growing workforces — the artisan community — has caught the eye of the international fashion industry, TheGuardian reports.

Brands are tapping into the potential of highly skilled artists in traditional crafts, despite a lack of industry know-how.

“The workforce throughout the continent is significantly underdeveloped,” said Erika Freund, director and owner of Mikuti, a U.S. jewelry and fashion brand that has been developing a supply chain in sub-Saharan Africa for the last four years.

Lack of development is due to lack of education, training and opportunity, Freund told TheGuardian. “Take this into consideration, along with a growing population of young people who are hungry and eager to participate in the global economy, and you have serious potential for greatness,” she said.

If brands or manufacturers want to tap into this and move their manufacturing to
the Africa, they need to make investments for long-term growth, Freund said. “These investments need to be strategic, holistic, and aligned with the mission and market of the company or brand so the foundation is set for sustainable growth”.

Africa comes with a high level of risk, said Rebecca Van Bergen, executive director and founder of Nest, a non-governmental organization that helps bring local artisans to market by partnering them with ethical brands. Violence and regime changes make Africa an unstable business platform, she said.

This unpredictability varies. Some countries are seeing more business activity than others. In sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana and Nigeria’s strong growth in the west is increasing business activity, while in the east, Kenya and Tanzania are areas of particular interest to international business, according to the Initiative for Global Development. In the south, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa are major targets for companies looking move operations or to expand.

Freund and Van Bergen agree that the biggest challenge brands face is the culture shock in coming from other continents. Businesses must respect and understand the history of African culture if they are to create sustainable growth and succeed in the region.

“Cultural congruency is a real challenge,” Freund said. “The only way to get a glimpse into this is to live there and experience it. Experience what it’s like to live in a developing country. To work on the ground, understand the public transportation challenges, weather challenges, economic challenges, gender challenges, and the lack of resources.

“There are many variables that equate to having some type of understanding. I’ve been living there on and off for four years and I’m still learning. With the lessons come more innovative ways to accomplish things, and you learn to find strength in difference, it’s the only attitude to have.”

Van Bergen said it’s essential to build strong collaboration between NGOs, businesses and local communities if brands are to help build robust industries in Africa. An example of this is a new project in Swaziland that Nest is set to announce with the Voss Foundation, an charity that wants to bring water to communities so people can concentrate on self-improvement.

Women must often walk miles a day to fetch water, impacting their ability to work full time. Nest says that with access to food and clean water, women artisans in Swaziland would be safer, healthier and better able to work, bringing much needed income back to their families and children.

The two organizations are bringing clean water and sanitation services to 6,300 people
in Swaziland by building five water pumps and 30 pit latrines in villages where two Nest artisan partners work.

Kara Gerson, executive director of Voss, said businesses that move operations to Africa must be fair and ensure that both workers and the business owners benefit from it simultaneously.

They must get to know the people who comprise the community and understand and respect their culture, recent experiences, needs, and capacities.

“All too often, we see organizations take a cookie-cutter approach – usually with the best
intentions – in order to scale up as quickly as possible,” Gerson said. “Unfortunately, their projects are the ones that fail because they don’t meet a community’s actual requirements, just what the donor thought it needed.”

NGOs and ethical brands hoping to establish a harmonized business platform for both the communities of Africa and industry sometimes worrythat the continent’s economic growth could encourage unsustainable practices previously seen in places such as Bangladesh and China.

“One of the reasons why brands work in places like Bangladesh and China, with big factories, is it is easier than working with artisan ethical production and it’s cheaper,” Van Bergen said.

There needs to be a movement that encourages brands to move towards ethical business
collaboration in developing countries such as Africa, and part of that involves a consumer shift, Van Bergen said. “Brands that can reach consumers that want or demand that level of ethical supply chain in the products they’re buying is a huge step towards this movement”.