A year ago, representatives from Pakistan ’s dairy industry asked USAID for five million dollars to help improve the quality of milk. USAID’s response: Do it yourself! After developing a strategy proving that domestic investment and effective public/private dialogue can lead to increased profits, Pakistan ’s dairy industry has taken up the challenge and is producing results far exceeding everybody’s expectations.
To start the process, USAID supported Pakistan ’s dairy industry to benchmark its performance against global dairy leaders. The strategy considered investments that would be needed in infrastructure, technology, human resources, and management all along the production chain to ensure that the final product could command a high price from consumers. The activity also looked at reforms that would be required to enable the private sector to have confidence that investments would lead to higher profits.
Effective public/private dialogue helped build consensus around the strategy and ensure that the concerns of various stakeholders, including farmers, financial institutions, input suppliers, and relevant Government institutions’ concerns were reflected. Study tours to Australia and New Zealand helped refine the strategy and craft pilot project around successful models that can be implemented in Pakistan .
The results have been phenomenal: dairy processors have committed more than $1 million to implement the strategy in a number of pilot areas. Pakistan ’s Prime Minister, having been briefed on the USAID project, has pledged an additional $3 million to further support the effort. Pakistan 's President, Pervez Mushharaf, invited key members from USAID's dairy project to accompany him on a recent trip to Australia and New Zealand .
The project will help raise the incomes of 600,000 farmers by more than 40%, boost trade with neighboring countries, ensure more hygienic milk is available to Pakistani families and, most importantly, demonstrate that role that smart investment and proactive public/private dialogue can play in accelerating Pakistan’s development.
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