Dairy’s transformative power
Asia is the fastest growing region in terms of dairy production with an ever-growing demand expected in the coming years. While this provides an attractive opportunity, it also implies a drastic pressure on natural resources and on the dairy sector. While dairy development is naturally part of FAO’s mandate it deserves special attention given the role it can play in lifting people out of poverty. To that end, ‘Dairy Asia’ (http://dairyasia.org) was founded in 2014 with support from FAO as a multi-stakeholder partnership of willing partners committed to visioning and building a sustainable dairy sector in Asia and the Pacific region. Furthermore, Dairy Asia is integrated as action network in the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL), which provides a unique venue supporting the achievement of the UN Agenda 2030. More information at: http://www.livestockdialogue.org/action-networks/action-networks/dairy-asia-partnership-for-health-and-prosperity/en/.
Traditionally collaboration on national level between sectors is often lacking. This is all the more true on regional level and in a diverse region such as Asia. This lack is not only preventing countries to learn from each other but also hinders cooperation on regional level. Dairy Asia aims at filling this gap by facilitating dialogue, generating evidence and advocating for practice and policy change among member countries in the Asian dairy sector.
Dairy Asia’s overall vision is to support a socially and environmentally responsible Asian dairy sector that enhances rural livelihoods, improves nutrition, and contributes to economic prosperity. Currently the partnership consist of 13 national focal points from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. The internal structure of Dairy Asia includes the previously mentioned national focal points, a steering committee and the secretariat currently hosted at FAO Mongolia. This structure allows for semi-autonomous working, building on the strengths of all member countries and creating opportunities towards more coordinated action in pursuit of all the member countries’ common vision and strategic objectives. Dairy Asia likewise maintains collaboration and linkage with global knowledge partners and sponsors from both within and outside the region.
The current priority for Dairy Asia is to strengthen the institutional setup. To that end, Mongolia has made proposal to establish a permanent secretariat office in Ulaanbaatar. This will allow Dairy Asia to strengthen the exchange among member countries as well as it allows Mongolia to communicate and build partnership. Besides the institutional development, Dairy Asia aims at the following actions in the mid-term: a) Increasing coverage of Dairy Asia by enlarging membership to East and central Asia. b) Generating more knowledge from countries and share with others for mutual benefit, c) establishing sustainable financial means to maintain Dairy Asia on a regular basis and d) engaging more with the private sector.
You can follow Dairy Asia on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Dairy-Asia-Network-2494017884155211/. Feel free to share any feedback to this article with Mr Martin Heilmann ([email protected])