The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development hosted the 16^th Core partners’ meeting on 31^st May, 2021 at Reiz Continental Hotel, CBD, Abuja. The meeting was conducted remotely (virtual), via MS teams for overseas participants and physical presence with 15 partners in attendance. Dairy Development Partnership (FMARD, FCWAMCO & 2SCALE) is built on successes and experiences gained so far despite covid – 19 pandemic challenges. Dairy Development Programme (DDP) focuses on replicating successes and learning to support Friesland Campina Wamco (FCWAMCO) business model for local sourcing of raw milk from milk producers in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Niger States, which is expected to expand to additional States in Northern Nigeria. The partnership is governed by Field Support Team (FST) and local dairy council at the cluster level, a management committee, and a Strategic oversight committee (Core Partners).

The Core Partners meeting is organized twice a year to review the partnership performance. During the meeting, the Core Partners provide overall strategic orientations to the partnership, validates the annual evaluation note and joint annual actual plans. The Management Committee during remote meeting discovered the emerging challenges on open grazing in South West Nigeria, might affect Fulani Milk producers. From the foregoing, the management team decided to call for the core partners meeting in May, 2021 to deliberate and agree on emerging developments affecting the partnership.

The objectives of the strategic committee meeting include:

• To reflect on the performance of the partnership from January 2021 to date
• To align validated annual action plan and budget with the expectation of FCW
• To align emerging expectations of the lead partner FCWAMCO and 2SCALE in line with the outcomes during reflect and adapt workshop.
• To discuss replication strategies for dairy development in new locations and emerging challenges of the partnership and provide strategic solutions to address them.
• To present findings on quick survey of potentials for dairy development in six additional states.

Proposed action plan developed by partners was reviewed. The major activities focused on include Dairy cooperative development, milk collection facilities and infrastructure development, Value Chain connections and strengthening, genetic improvement. The reviewed proposed action were incorporated in the 2021 action plan.