Uzbekistan

<p>EFI has mobilised consumers and creative skills to leverage a new positioning for artisans from marginalized communities in the international markets of lifestyle and fashion/luxury. EFI has enabled new creative talents to trade internationally and to get access to platforms of e-commerce and promotion that are reshaping the segment of ethical fashion, which is now a mainstream part of the market.</p><p>EFI&rsquo;s experience illustrates how investing in human capital through culture means bringing about change at the level of:</p><ul><li>Individuals, who become involved in training, capacity building and personal transformation/consciousness raising, workshops and/or business processes, dialogue and encounters;</li><li>Consumers and citizens, who become mobilized through media and/or action campaigns;</li><li>Professional development, supply and collaboration networks, who become involved through a series of relationship-building processes, joint efforts and practical programs on substantive problems linked to product development and market responses; and,</li><li>Communities, where social capital is developed and/ or solidified by connecting new human resources (from the informal sector) to existing formal business and social networks.</li></ul>