In Pakistan, MDF and its partners have found ways to add value to horticulture off-take – creating new products, lifting prices and improving the shelf-life of fruit and spices products so they can be sold beyond the local markets.
The need for skilled workers has meant opportunities for women to work and for farmers in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of Sindh to improve their earnings from the produce they grow.
MDF’s partner Baloch Hamza Brothers, in the conservative region Panjgur, Balochistan, set up a gender-segregated date processing facility. This meant women could take up seasonal labouring jobs. In Balochistan, women do not get a lot of opportunities to work. The company proved to be a change agent. 50 per cent of BHB’s workforce is now female, inspired by the owner’s wife, who has acted as a powerful role model for women, encouraging them to try out working at the processing facility.
The documentary Balochistan: A Date with Opportunity highlights the issues, challenges and successes regarding private sector investors and women at work in the Borderlands. The forward strides made by MDF partner Baloch Hamza Brothers features that change is possible in Balochistan.
Click on the button below to watch Balochistan: A Date with Opportunity.