DakDae was founded in January 2018 by three women founders. DakDae was founded because they saw the value and market potential of local products but at the same time the limited support to add value to those products at that time. Therefore, the first founder of DakDae who had been working in the development sector and Fairtrade for five years and had a network of local producers, started collaborating with the second founder who shared the same vision and had the product development and design skills to establish DakDae. After that DakDae found the third founder in order to take care of stock, sales, and finance.

DakDae has one physical shop, selling100% local products in Vientiane Capital since 2018. At the end of 2019 DakDae expanded one branch in Khammouane Province. DakDae isselling/developing both agro-processed products (80%) and handicraft/handmade products (20%). DakDae is working with the private sector and producers around Laos. DakDae’s goal is to source/put together local products in one place in Vientiane Capital and expand branches in major cities around the country. For each target city, DakDae aims to develop unique products through upgrading or developing value chains based on market demand.

Most of the producers we work with, both in agriculture and handicraft, are aged 50-89 years old, while few youths are currently involved in production. This meant that DakDae has sometimes struggled with distance communication, new designs, quality control, logistics, and payments, which can be more challenging for the older generation. DakDae has been trying to involve their children to fulfill those gaps and it has been quite successful so far. Despite the promising results, DakDae is still concerned with the sustainability of the supply chain and market expansion because the limited number of youths involved causes a limited scale of production.

In mid-2020, after the first wave of COVID-19 in Laos, DakDae piloted a pottery project with elderly artisans in Khammouane Province with no youth involvement. In 2021 during our project follow-up, returnee youths (who went to work in Thailand but had to return home due to outbreak in Thailand) were more involved and active in the production and even marketing through Facebook during our workshop on new product design. Other cases involved two of our trainees (high school students) from rural areas. The first youth started to try to develop new packaging and to market agro-processed products (dried bamboo shoot) for parents. The second youth brought ethnic handicrafts from his community to sell in Vientiane Capital during his exam for university. Unfortunately, it was not very successful due to limited market information, limitations in the product design and the mindset to turn such opportunities into employment.

This project will provide micro-business development support for elderly people, by facilitating collaboration with youths from rural and urban areas.

The project team intends to harvest the enormous potential of existing traditional processing (agriculture products) and crafts techniques/skills of elderly men and women in Laos, to meet current market demands by modernizing the way their products are developed and marketed. To do this, youths that are passionate about financial management, product development or marketing, are matched with the skillful elderly to become intergenerational business teams. Youths, particularly from indigenous communities, who are interested in learning traditional processes and skills, may also be matched with elderly mentors in a mutually beneficial exchange between generations.

Technology and market trends are changing at all levels of production, processing, design, packaging, transportation, trading, communication, marketing, and even payment systems. The elderly are usually left out of these modernization processes, making them and their craft vulnerable. Furthermore, techniques, knowledge, and products that have traditionally generated income for entire communities are at risk of being lost forever if a new, passionate generation does not step in to take that learning into the modern world.

Therefore, the project aims to develop an economic empowerment platform for elderly people in ruralcommunities to generate income, while also building the capacity of youths in rural areas, especially of early married girls, on micro-business development in its three fundamental areas: (i) Marketing (ii) Product (iii) Finance Management. So, if on the one handproducts will be developed by elderly and youths together in rural communities, on the other, urban youths will support them with marketing, communication, and product design.

What is the change we want to see?

Short-term changes:
● Products from vulnerable elderly meet market demand and are distributed widely in the domestic market based on their business viability and not as charity products only.
● Vulnerable elderly have access to learning and market outlets to improve and sell their products to generate income towards financial stability.
● Vulnerable youth in rural areas have better entrepreneurship skills and access to traditional learning opportunities gained from the target elderly.
● The establishment of a new peer to peer platform for elderly and youths to interact, learn, and exchange.
● Increase awareness in Laos on the elderly as resourceful and innovative members of society who can generate employment opportunities for youths in rural and urban areas.

Long-term changes:
● There is a shift in perception by youths on the skills of the elderly, towards a renewed appreciation for traditional knowledge and its conservation as a cultural and economic asset for society.
● Local skills and knowledge are automatically conserved and renovated based on market trends
● A new approach to providing micro-business development support for the elderly is scaled/up and adapted for use in different contexts of society.