The Ehsaas Value Chain Building Committee met today for third time at the Prime Minister’s office to deliberate on strengthening rural value chains agenda, which comes under the umbrella of the pioneering Ehsaas social protection and poverty alleviation programme. Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, chaired the meeting. The meeting brought experts’ perspective to the table around building value chains for rural transformation, catalyzing increased productivity, increased incomes for subsistence farmers and job creation. The meeting was an opportunity for the leadership from across eight federal government ministries and Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Livestock – to join representatives of key national and international finance, food and agriculture bodies – including the key persons from State Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, FBR, Government research entities, and representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, USAID and Japan International Cooperation Agency, TELCOS including Telenor and Jazz. In attendance were also representatives from IFAD, which is an international financial institution and specialized United Nations Agency and collaborator on this initiative.