(RPG-025) “ACCESS TO MARKETS”

In the language of the United Nations, the success or failure of development programs is generally measured in terms of “access”. For example, success or failure is measured in terms of access to clean potable water, access to low cost housing and access to affordable health care.

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In the many years that I have been involved in the process of providing livelihood, I have noticed that it is many times more difficult to market livelihood products, as opposed to starting or creating livelihood projects. It is even easier to provide livelihood training, because there are many trainers all over the country.

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Using the language of the United Nations, it would be right to say that what is needed now in the process of providing livelihood is to create access to markets for livelihood products. Of course this is easier said than done, but fortunately for all of us, marketing is a science that is available to everyone, and all we have to do is to put it to good use.

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In the new structure of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA), the Inter-Charity Network (ICN) is the lead organization for providing livelihood. Given this task, the ICN will provide access to all the components of livelihood namely training, financing and consulting, but on top of it all, more emphasis will be given to providing access to markets.

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At the higher level of the UNIDA, a direct selling organization (DSO) is now being formed, a project that will be implemented through the lead organizations namely the CFPCI, the UNICORN and the ICN. An e-Commerce portal is also being designed, to sell products online. Completing the line-up is a year round bazaar project at the HK Sun Plaza, now open for all entrepreneurs who would like to display their products.

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As the saying goes, there are many ways of skinning a cat. The bottom line is to be able to be able to provide market access to the products coming from livelihood projects, so that these projects could be sustained in the long run.