Design as a generator for development

Progress and sustainable development by means of design. Exchange of know-how between Danish designers and local craftsmen. New possibilities and changes for the better – both in human and economical terms. This is the essence in the Morocco Project that the Danish School of Design - along with changing classes of design students - joined in 2008.

A group of Moroccan craftswomen have received a basic education in product development, quality, how to generate ideas, sales and marketing in order for them to increase their profits and to improve their competences. The project receives funds from local resources, which enables the women to pass their newly acquired knowledge on to more craftswomen.

Marie Hugsted has been involved in the project for two years, and her thesis treated just that. She believes that the most important contribution of the students – in addition to the development and improvement of female craftsmanship – is that many of these women now see themselves in a new light. They have grown, because they have realised that they are able to do something that others cannot. Their self-confidence is boosted, and as a consequence some of the women are now involved politically in their village.

So far the products are presented on fairs in Denmark, France and Spain with the participation of some of the women. The project will end in 2012. From then on the Moroccans are supposed to take over and make sure that education and competences are handed over to more women.