On November 4th, 2019 IOS Partners, Inc. subcontracted by Landell Mills Ltd (United Kingdom), was selected by the Livestock Marketing and Resilience Programme (LMRP) set up by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to Establish and Run LMRP Public-Private Partnership Unit (PPPU) in Sudan over a 30-month period.
The program aims to revive the livestock industry, optimize the use of a diminishing natural resource base under threat from climate change and address widespread rural poverty.
The assignment comprises three phases:
- Assess the live sheep and cattle, the red meat and the hide/skin/leather value chains to determine financially viable PPP transactions in each of the three value chains, and identify and assess institutional responsibility and capacity to award and oversee the contracts;
- Carry out five detailed feasibility studies and transaction structuring for projects identified in during the value chain analysis; and
- Prepare all necessary tender documents, including a draft project agreement for the three most viable projects among the five evaluated in Phase 2; and assist the relevant GoS agency/agencies throughout the full procurement process up to and including contract award for the three projects.
The IOS team has already completed two missions to Khartoum and various towns outside the capital. The first inception mission held in December 2019 focused on collecting the initial findings on the ground to finetune the implementation approach toward future project activities. The inception mission revealed the enormous potential to produce meat and leather products, with nearby markets ready to absorb this production, instead of exporting animal feed and live animals.
During the second mission conducted in February 2020, the IOS team met with stakeholders in Khartoum and in the rural areas where livestock production is anchored. These discussions yielded excellent information that will help the entire study team who are working on this assignment over the next two years to design effective investment vehicles for the industry’s amelioration. Currently, Sudan exports a high volume of raw materials (in the form of livestock exports and raw skins/hides), but businesses lack the capacity to regularly process these items as value-added products like frozen meat or finished leathers. Overcoming inefficiencies in the value chain through the involvement of experienced, private sector partners, can help boost Sudan’s livestock sector to unlock value-adding opportunities in future years.
