Joined forces of US and Irish Aid to trigger private sector led dairy innovation in Ethiopia
Precise Consult International (PCI) is a premiere management consulting firm specializing in the provision of business, investment, and finance advisory services, in private sector development and in economic analysis to enterprises, to international development agencies and to the government. PCI is also a lead implementer of the Ethiopian Sustainable Agribusiness Incubator (ESAI), which is, the first of its kind in building Agribusiness incubation center in Ethiopia. This center was established under a cooperative agreement between USAID-Ethiopia and PCI in 2013. The overall objective of ESAI is the sub- sector-by sub-sector transformation of Ethiopian agriculture through enhanced competitiveness of entire value chains, greater role of the private sector in value addition and increased investments in three subsectors namely sesame, honey and dairy.
Recognizing the great vision, determination and encouraging progress of ESAI; the Irish Aid (through its Private Sector Innovation Fund) has commenced collaboration with PCI and USAID in this pioneering project. The joined forces of the US and Irish Aid has therefore created the establishment of ‘Dairy Innovation Fund’. The ultimate goal of the Fund is to supplement and contribute to ESAI by providing a specific support to enhance dairy innovation that would lead to the transformation of the dairy sub-sector, by in large. The fund is designed to help innovative companies augment their risk averting capacity in the process of introducing new technology, knowledge and organizational forms that could bring new or more values in to the dairy industry.
The Dairy Innovative Fund, which is approximately €400,000, will help provide financial support to innovative businesses models and technologies focusing on value addition in the dairy sub-sector. The grantee selection process will be transparent and competitive and will be publicized through a call for proposal. In order to select the appropriate applicants, criteria will be set to measure the concept notes’ merit on innovativeness and the potential in creating significant impacts on the dairy sub-sector transformation.