Baskets made by Nest certified artisan social enterprise, All Across Africa, arrive at H&M Home and ARKET

Products made by Nest certified artisan businesses have also made their way overseas, where more than seven SKUs of baskets handwoven by 2018 Nest Artisan Accelerator graduate, All Across Africa, rolled out this past month on shelves in H&M Home and ARKET across several European countries. The collaboration comes as part of H&M Group’s new Social Entrepreneurship Project, designed to support entrepreneurs leading businesses that have social objectives and focus on societal change. As an implementing partner, Nest reviewed H&M Group’s production requirements and social impact goals, along with aesthetic direction from its design team, to match H&M Group with All Across Africa, whom we identified as an ideal artisan partner for this project.

Following months of production oversight working closely alongside the H&M Group and All Across African teams, Nest conducted an onsite visit to Uganda to collect information on the impact of the project for the all-female collective of weavers that All Across Africa employs. Through our worker wellbeing tool, we found that the H&M Group order created a total of 497 jobs for women in Uganda and Rwanda, reaching 2,852 people with positive social impact. 92% of the women who helped to hand-weave the baskets reported children’s education as the primary use of their income. All Across Africa weaver, Margaret, told us: “Weaving enables me to pay for all of my children’s school fees. Through my savings, I’ve been able to purchase two pigs and land. I recently started my own chapati business.”

As a Nest certified artisan business, All Across Africa has exemplified a high level of compliance with the Nest Standards, giving it access to the Nest Seal, which will appear on hang tags of the business’ own branded product line, KAZI, next season.