2023 Tier 5 WPS Award Winner

The livestock sector is a very important source of food for the Afghan people and a major employer of rural Afghans. Women are very much involved in the sector, and interestingly remain so regardless of Taliban policies on women in other types of work. Prime Consulting is operating partner for the Afghanistan Value Chains – Livestock program (AVC-L), under sub-contract to USA-based firm Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI). AVC-L is funded by USAID and is one of the very few remaining USAID funded programs still operating in the country. It commenced in 2018.

AVC-L has redoubled its efforts to engage women-owned and operated businesses in the livestock sector in the last two years and is making an important contribution to their opportunity to continue to earn money and produce food products not only for their local communities but also the urban populations of the country. This in turn promotes stability and provides a platform for future further development of the country when political operating conditions allow.

Some of the achievements in this area include:

4,045 women participants in training designed specifically for women
4,187 women participants in project activities designed for both women and men (26% overall inclusion rate)
120 support agreements signed with women-owned businesses
56 women-owned businesses participated in trade fairs and exhibitions
22 women-owned manufacturing businesses reported increased sales
1,289 full-time jobs created for women
13,193 women households benefitted from project activities

In Zambia, Prime is working with women in the dairy sector to build their capacity in dairy management. The dairy farming sector is important for Zambia as it provides an important source of nutrition and livelihoods for rural Zambians, and it has become a major vehicle for economic empowerment of rural women in particular. The Zambian Dairy Transformation Program (ZDTP), designed and managed by Prime, has been active since 2016, providing capacity building in dairy farm management and cooperative business governance. ZDTP is funded by the New Zealand Aid Program.

Under ZDTP, Prime’s work has resulted in a 3438% increase in female smallholder farmer gross profit between January 2017 and December 2022 (whereas men had only 781% increase on baseline). This shows the powerful results available when women are fully empowered to participate in capacity building programs. The payoff for addressing these matters contributes substantially to food security, economic security and the stability of the country.

About Prime Consulting: Prime Consulting International Limited (Prime) is a management consultancy and programme/project management firm that operates worldwide. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New Zealand, Prime has joint ventures, subsidiaries and representative offices in Australasia, the Pacific Islands, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and USA. Prime has worked in more than 50 countries, delivering services for government agencies, private sector firms and multilateral international development agencies. Prime’s operations are strongly localised, with over 70 percent of personnel being country nationals. The firm champions integrated business solutions in the humanitarian, security and development sectors, including in fragile conflict affected situations (FCAS). FCAS where Prime has experience include Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar and other fragile states in the Indo-Pacific. Fifty percent of our Executive Leadership Team are women.

Services include security, humanitarian aid and development.