Riding the Bull

Challenges in implementing SDGs in the Pakistani Dairy Sector

By: Mobeen Ahmed Chughtai

The world, today, is teetering on the edge of failure. Witnessing these effects is not difficult – shifting climactic cycles and increasing poverty and food insecurity speak volumes. By the turn of the century, the UN realized that insular affirmative action was not enough to turn this tide –the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) initiative was launched in 2000 and, later, supplanted by the more comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework in 2015 outlining 17 objectives covering 169 targets ranging from eliminating poverty to mitigating climate change, from strengthening democracies to promoting good health and wellbeing for all.

This approach provides businesses and stakeholders with a new lens with which to view their markets. Ventures can now gauge the efficacy of their plans against established benchmarks in order to better manage their risks, anticipate consumer demands and strengthen supply chains in a way that doesn’t hurt the interests of future generations.

While the MDG program was a roaring success, the acceptance of SDGs has so far been… modest. According to an independent survey of 470 companies around the world, conducted by PwC Global in 2017, 25% companies only discuss the goals in general terms while 38% “haven’t addressed the goals at all” in their reporting (PwC Global, 2017). This suggests that SDGs do not figure into corporate policy-making as much as they need to.

But to be fair, while these goals sound grand, that is also their principle weakness. There are too many targets, as The Economist put it in a scathing critique published in 2015, describing the SDGs as “a mess” (The Economist, 2015). Add to that policy-level debility the fact that in a market where business entities have to base decisions on the financial bottom-line, achieving SDGs will “cost $2 trillion-3 trillion a year of public and private money over 15 years. That is roughly 15% of annual global savings, or 4% of world GDP” (The Economist, 2015).

The situation in Pakistan also is quite grim. Several factors – such as a generally low education standing, a preference for legacy business regimes and little incentivization by government – contribute to no real exposure to the SDGs or understanding of their underlying necessities. It must, however, be emphasized that in Pakistan, programs related to SDG propagation are, largely, private sector driven. That is not to say that there aren’t government mechanisms including three Special SDG-Units established at the Federal-level, but their effectiveness can be assessed from the fact that these “three do not have any internal interface for policy coordination” (Dawn Newspaper, 2017).

The Pakistani Dairy sector is not exempt from these limitations. Despite being the third largest milk producer in the world, an annual production of over 50 billion liters, a rural workforce employment of 42.3% and Livestock farming contributing to 58.3% of the agricultural GDP (Centre for Applied Policy Research in Livestock, UVAS, 2018) – it still suffers from fundamental problems of a lack of trained human resources and government neglect in R&D efforts. However, SDGs – if complied with – can profoundly improve, both, the ease and efficiency of production as well as meeting health and environmental safety standards. Additionally, SDGs strongly stress easy provision of capital to farms which can expand the sector-wide supply chain nodes and assist farmers in securing a better quality of life.

But are we really ready to take this bull by the horns?

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About the Author

Mobeen A. Chughtai is a Communications and CSR Specialist with over 12 years of experience in the trade after finishing his training as a Political Economist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He has experience handling both ends of the communications chain, having worked as the business reporting lead for Punjab at numerous media outlets including Dawn News and as a corporate and development sector Communications for Business Development professional and consultant. Mobeen has served as a consultant to the Punjab Government on development communications and currently leads three CSR ventures in South Punjab dealing with issues of Peace Building, Seed Exchange and Environmental Sustainability. 

Bibliography

Centre for Applied Policy Research in Livestock, UVAS. (2018, April). Revival of Dairy Sector for Economic Development. Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Dawn Newspaper. (2017, October 2). Sustainable Development: How far has Pakistan come and how far do we have to go? Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.

PwC Global. (2017). SDG Reporting Challenge 2017: Exploring business communication on the global goals. London, United Kingdom: PwC Global.

The Economist. (2015, March 26). The 169 commandments. London, United Kingdom.