Page 33 - Islands Business March 2023

Development West Papua

Spaces outside the ambit of workplans Following TC Winston, a Category 5 storm that struck Fiji
Rise Beyond the Reef (RBTR) is present in rural communi- in February 2016, RBTR received individual donations and
ties across Fiji. It has been since 2014 when friends and family invested in long-term economic recovery strategies (for highly
raised US$5000 that started the work towards what is now impacted women). Our first recovery product collection
RBTR. By 2019, we were close to 70% self-sufficient through ‘Shelter from the Storm’ was borne out of this. This collec-
sales. tion remains relevant - genuine recovery takes time, and the
We are one of the only non-government organisations in collection continues to provide an income to women in the Ra
the Pacific that is not predominantly reliant on aid dollars. Province, to date.
The relationship we have nurtured with communities and our In 2018, we received our first core support grant of
consistent presence in their lives enables us track and be ac- FJ$150,000 from the Fiji Women’s Fund. This was a big deal
countable for actual dollars in the pocket of women we work for us; it gave us breathing room to grow and start to for-
alongside. We continue to receive aid money which we lever- malise our programme.
age to grow our sales, artisan skills, and buying capacity from
artisans. In 2020, the handicraft market reached a value of Shift gears in development
US$780 billion, with forecasted growth in the next five years Open and honest discussions were cornerstones of our
but the artisans we worked with needed to be convinced of relationship. We shifted the dominant narrative (that handi-
the value of their products. craft wasn’t just a hobby or a job but a globally-recognised
We began by sitting at the artisans’ and their communi- income-generating sector, backed by a consumer demand for
ties’ existing tables, in some of the most remote villages in ethical products and a UNESCO strategy). We underlined their
the interior of Viti Levu, Fiji. Mechanisms were tested and role as traditional knowledge holders, weaving their cultural
practiced. The last seven years has been one of genuine heritage into their products. We shared the 10 Principles of
power-sharing in their locale, nurturing rural-based, low-tech, Fair Trade and how to equitably address pricing for local and
high-touch artisans’ agency. export markets in our supply chain.
Investment in time with artisans and their communities, RBTR absorbed artisans’ costs (to cover leadership stipend;
free of the usual project cycle demands, means we better transport costs, materials, etc.) but this further strengthened
understand the linkages between women earning an amount our relationship and the effectiveness of our producer groups.
of money that’s meaningful to them, that shifts gender norms We were already practicing approaches the International La-
at a household and village level. Many Women’s Economic bor Organisation (ILO) published in 2018 to accelerate gender
Empowerment (WEE) development programs don’t understand equality. Time allows such approaches and values to evolve
this correlation. organically.
Another benefit of being 70% self-sufficient and free of Findings of Fiji’s 2019-2020 Household Income and Expen-
project cycle demands is the flexibility to innovate because diture Survey – that some 30% of Fijians are living in poverty,
the monies we have made is not tagged to a specific work 62.2% of who live in rural areas – is a reminder that we,
plan activity. That helps to fill in the gaps when trying new development practitioners, need to change the way we utilise
concepts. aid and do development. RBTR cannot do it on its own, but
RBTR began by providing technical support to communities we believe ours is a model that can be adapted widely. Donor
to source government or donor funding for needs they identi- money was used strategically, with timeframes that worked
fied. This gave us some experience and once we raised the for the women (we worked with) and their communities.
money needed in 2014, RBTR conducted some basic business Deliberately becoming independent of funding entrenches
and product crafting training. We sold products to test the the sustainability of the approaches we practice, including a
market within three months of the training. We applied for timeframe that is responsive to the rate of progress on the
larger grants then but our (untested) concept did not convince ground. The flexibility RBTR enjoys during our humanitarian
donors. We continued regardless, picking up lessons on the response is a bonus from such practices.
way. We formulated our own systems, determined appropriate Prioritising short-term, tangible, visible and measurable
timeframes and found ways to self-fund. results belie the entrenched complex systemic issues that un-
We invested in a product conceptual development and de- less meaningfully and collectively addressed, will continue to
sign specialist. No one was getting paid regularly at the time, hinder real progress.
but we knew that it was critical for market growth. Designers We believe that an appropriate timeframe is the tipping
determine an income-generating project’s capacity to sustain point. Either that or we wallow in box-ticking based develop-
itself when grants dry up. When we received a grant of about ment that will deprive us of much needed transformational
FJD$55,000 through the Australian Government’s Market impacts.
Development Facility (MDF) in 2015, we invested in a Business
Manager and a Creative Director. editor@islandsbusiness.com

Islands Business, March 2023 33