Development of Manual and Capacity Building of Food Authorites of Sindh and Balochistan on Milk Safety

The Project

GRASP is a six-year project designed to reduce poverty in Pakistan by strengthening small-scale agribusinesses in two provinces: Sindh and Balochistan. The Project will help small and medium-sized enterprises in horticulture and livestock become more competitive by making improvements at all levels of the value chain. GRASP is implemented by the International Trade Centre – the joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization – with active participation from local partners. The project is funded by the delegation of the European Union to Pakistan.

GRASP will take a holistic approach to building MSME competitiveness in agribusiness value chains starting from a deep understanding of markets and working back through the value chain to enable MSMEs and ultimately producers to create and capture additional value. To do this, GRASP will implement three outputs:

• Output-1. Institutional capacity strengthened and business environment improved for rural MSME development
• Output-2. Agribusiness service providing MSMEs (run by Male/Female) and their BIOs are capacitated to enhance primary production and quality.
• Output-3. Commercially operating MSMEs Male/Female) are trained in appropriate environmentally sustainable technologies value and enhance marketed volumes

The Food Authorities in Sindh and Balochistan have been established with the mandate to lay down standards, procedures, processes and guidelines in relation to any aspect of Food including food business, food labeling and food addictive etc. During ongoing discussions and consultations with the two Authorities; BFA (Balochistan Food Authority) and SFA (Sindh Food Authority, it was transpired that there is a need to address some urgent capacity needs of their food officers on food safety standards and compliance monitoring of Milk value chain.

GRASP will be primarily focusing on its priority products while looking into capacity needs of the two Authorities. The assignment will focus primarily on three aspects namely development of training modules covering all CCPs, standards and laws, training of Master trainers in both the provinces and delivery of training to the wider groups of stakeholders.

The module/manual will necessarily cover all the CCPs related to Milk Safety standards, - relevant laws, compliance mechanism including monitoring protocols etc. The manual will include a narrative part, power point presentations and trainee assessment methodology. The key staff responsible for monitoring the milk markets-whole sale and retail milk shops- SPS compliance including hygiene conditions, adulteration etc will be trained on subject standards adopted by BFA and SFA in line with the relevant laws. Once the Master trainers have been trained, three trainings each in Sindh and Balochistan will be conducted (Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Khuzdar and Pishin). The trained master trainers should be able to replicate the trainings beyond GRASP districts as well.

Sub-output 1.4: SPS legal and institutional framework review and strengthened

Activity: 1.4.2: Strengthen institutions in Sindh and Balochistan to supervise and support compliance of SMEs to the above legislation and quality and SPS market requirements

Description of Duties/Responsibilities:

GRASP/ITC is seeking services of highly qualified and skilled consultant to facilitate this capacity building process. The training module & manual should be developed in English and translated into Urdu for further use at field level. The Consultant will work under the guidance of Islamabad based Deputy GRASP Coordinator/Policy Lead in association with Provincial Leads of Sindh and Balochistan. The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the GRASP Project Coordinator. The consultant will be required to collaborate with other ITC staff and consultants in the province.

Among other important aspects, the manual should cover the below specific topics/areas:

• Milk Safety Standards at National and International level as per SPS requirements
• Regulatory framework, institutional mandate and cross overs
• Importance of Milk safety and quality standards
• Food Safety Standards of Milk-provincial mandate, SoPs
• National and International best Practices including licensing /process/importance
• Milk production, processing, storage and value addition protocols
• Compliance, safe sample collection and testing
• Adulteration and its impacts on human health
• SMEs sensitization tools and techniques
• Monitoring and reporting, Milk safety surveillance
• The requirements of ISO 17020 for inspection bodies.

It is the responsibility of consultant to ensure that he/she has obtained the necessary permissions required to perform his/her services under this consultancy contract and for the subsequent dissemination of the information by ITC in any form. ITC maintains the overall intellectual property rights over the final deliverables produced under this assignment

Expected Deliverables and Timeline: