WASHINGTON — Sunil Shrestha knows all about inventory and cash flow from his years operating Dairy Queen and IHOP franchises. But nothing in his entrepreneurial career prepared him for his current challenges.
What do you do when a South African supplier can't deliver on time because the only woman who knows how to make its intricately beaded baskets has died? What is a reasonable price to pay poor Indonesians who are weaving bags out of recycled garbage? And where, in the nation's capital, can one find milk produced in an environmentally friendly manner?
"If we can make this sustainable, we can help the artisans," Shrestha said of his current business, a showcase for goods made by poor farmers and handicraft producers from around the world. "If this goes into a loss, we can't help anyone."
Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe represents a pioneering effort by the entrepreneur and his partners at the International Finance Corp., the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, to enlist Americans in the campaign against global poverty.
The newly opened venture, which looks more like a high-end boutique than a development program, is on the ground floor of IFC's Washington headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from the White House.
Pangea is a departure for IFC, long the target of activist critics who say it favors the interests of big corporations over those of the poor, and an advance in the growing fair-trade movement, which is finding more acceptance among American customers.
To earn a space at Pangea, its 50-plus suppliers have agreed to act ethically, providing their workers fair wages and working conditions as well as promising not to use child labor or harm the environment. But they also have to deliver their products on time and within budget.
"This isn't about charity," said Harold Rosen, the driving force behind Pangea and director of IFC's Grassroots Business Initiative. "We want to show that business can work for poor people."
Pangea, from the Greek word for "all lands," might more loosely be translated in this case as "retail with a conscience."
Along one wall are shelves stocked with silk handbags and scarves produced by nonprofit group Hagar, which supports a shelter for abused women in Cambodia. The colorful woven baskets were produced by Gone Rural, a group of more than 750 artisans in Swaziland that supports HIV and AIDS patients. A stamped metal saxophone was crafted from recycled oil drums by a Haitian artist.
