Rwanda is a country that continues to develop and become one of the fastest-growing economies. Rwanda has specific laws regarding gender equality and rights for women. This is good, but how does the country's development impact women? Members of the artisan cooperative encouraged me to start at the source of their cooperative. I visited the specific building and market for gitenge fabric. Many of the shopkeepers were women. In the last couple of years, things have drastically changed in this area. Previously those who had shops in this building paid for rent and some minor taxes. Much of the transactions that happened here were happening in the informal economy. Buyers would come and haggle over wholesale fabric prices with the shopkeepers. No receipts were given, and most records were kept on paper. If they needed to report the sales, shopkeepers would report much lower than what they actually earned. Shopkeepers were not necessarily avoiding paying taxes, but it was something not strictly enforced. Today, each shopkeeper has a small computer to keep track of inventory and sales. When a sale is completed, they record it on their computer and give a receipt to the buyer. The buyer then is often checked on the way out by revenue authorities. So if there is no receipt, both the buyer and the seller may be in trouble. I witnessed a revenue authority official question one women shopkeeper on why the reported amount was not matching her records. The argument drove customers from the women's shop. When I was going about buying fabric, I would barter over the price, and each time I was asked if I had room in my bag to take the fabric. If I did, I could get the fabric a little bit cheaper because nobody would check my bag on the way out, and the shopkeeper would not have to record the sale. While there, I asked different shopkeepers and those I was with why this question was being asked. They mentioned that now because of the increased reporting, sales taxes are much higher on the products. So those selling fabric make much less than they were making before this informal economy's development. They already make so little, so having any amount taken out of their profits hurts them more financially. Also, the addition of the increased cost of goods that have been seen around the world also makes it harder to survive off of what they earn. I bought fabric from different shopkeepers and was now more concerned about how developing the informal economy to help develop a country may not always bring about positive changes for women. 
One of the shopkeepers I met while at the market (Photo taken and shared with her permission).
Every shop looked like this with mountains of fabric which made me super happy but also made decision hard.
Returning to the cooperative, I asked the CEO how such developments in the Rwandan economy had impacted them. They discussed how the fabric they used for their goods was much higher, and they also had to pay higher taxes on their sales. But the development also made it possible to now accept cards as payment because it was something made cheaper by the development of the economy. The development of the economy also means the artisan sector has to develop itself. One concern voiced by both cooperatives I worked with last time in Rwanda mentioned how they had an online presence. They rely upon local tourism and have been missing customers lately due to the global pandemic. While working with Komera Creative, I took lots of pictures of products and the women working. As well as taking videos of the women. I did this to help them create a stronger social media presence and a website so they could sell products online and gain more customers worldwide. I cannot wait to share more about this in the near future and help Komera's wonderful products make it into your hands.
Some of the products
My next blog post will discuss the photovoice I did with the women in the cooperatives.
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