Idea 448 of 500. Cluster 23: The women who are not working
Bamboo grown on degraded land and made into flooring, panels and furniture for export
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home. Much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe transport, working hours) can be sold as a service, and the industries that would employ it can be built.
Every idea in cluster 23 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Find a landowner with degraded land who would plant bamboo under a shared agreement, and ask the Forest Department which kinds grow well there. Buy finished bamboo panels as samples and show them to furniture makers and builders here. Ask what they would pay for the same, made locally. The proof is a written agreement for the land and one buyer's letter of interest.
- Who pays first
- A furniture maker or builder who wants a hard, light material for floors and panels at a steady price.
- What leaves today
- Degraded land earns nothing; bamboo grown on it and made into panels here leaves as finished goods, not raw material.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
32% of adult women in work, against 70% of men
More from cluster 23
- 436Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
- 437After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
- 438Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
- 439Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, bookkeeping, transcription, design
- 440Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
- 441Women's craft co-operatives with a single brand and a single buyer abroad
Idea 448 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.