Introduction

Grow Asia is seeking proposals from experienced partners to support the successful delivery of a GrowVentures Project on Human-Centered Design (HCD) Training in Viet Nam and the Philippines. The contract duration will be from November 2024 to December 2024 for Viet Nam. 

 

In 2022, Grow Asia launched four public-private impact funds to accelerate the transformation of Southeast Asia’s agri-food system to become more efficient, sustainable, and resilient to the twin shocks of economic volatility and climate change. Together, these new blended-finance models serve as a co-matching mechanism between public and private-sector donors and investors, aiming to break down silos and improve the efficiency of capital flows into Southeast Asia’s food, agriculture, and forestry sectors by targeting the needs of the region’s 70 million small-scale rural enterprises. 

 

Grow Asia’s newest Innovation Challenge will be funded by the GrowVentures Fund, which is designed to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart innovations and digital tools across Southeast Asia by placing affordable solutions into the hands of farmers and agri-SMEs. 

 

Despite a global smart farming market that is expected to reach USD66.9 billion by 2030, the innovation landscape in Southeast Asia remains highly fragmented, with farmgate adoption remaining stubbornly slow due to well-reported financial barriers, market failures, and supply chain inefficiencies. Most companies and governments recognize that tackling these siloed delivery systems requires an innovation ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders, who can collectively unlock capacity and investments in agri-food innovation and get these technologies into the hands of farmers. 

 

Building on Grow Asia’s successful Digital Program, the first phase of the GrowVentures Innovation Challenge will be targeted at the rice value chain in Southeast Asia with a major focus on digital solutions in Viet Nam and Cambodia. The Challenge will be coordinated by Grow Asia in close collaboration with the Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and our Country Chapter, the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Viet Nam (PSAV). It will be designed to complement Viet Nam’s 1 million hectare high quality, low emissions rice scheme, which was announced by the Prime Minister in November 2023. 

​

A mandate for action

Climate change, with rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and increased pest and disease pressures, has exacerbated the urgent need to accelerate the availability of reliable digital solutions for farmers and to incentivize small and medium sized rural businesses to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices.

​

Rice is a vital global food crop, feeding over 3.5 billion people, predominantly in Asia. However, it currently poses a significant environmental challenge, contributing to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Vietnam produces more than 15% of the world’s rice and provides a lifeline for millions of smallholder farmers and their families, many of whom live in poverty and cultivate rice on less than 1 hectare of land. 

 

Viet Nam has made great strides to improve the quality and sustainability of its rice production through projects like VnSAT but traditional cultivation practices, including flooded paddy fields and open burning of rice straw, remain responsible for more than 50% of the country’s agricultural GHG burden and 75 percent of methane emissions. Methane and nitrous oxide, produced during these processes, are potent greenhouse gases, with global warming potentials 28 and 250 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2), respectively. 

 

Addressing the environmental impact of Viet Nam’s rice cultivation and improving the livelihoods and resilience of farmers is crucial for both food security and climate mitigation. Early results from the VnSAT project increased farmer yields by 10-18 percent, raised profits by around 6 percent, and reduced GHG emissions in the Mekong Delta, but it also drew criticism from farmers who have called for improvements in the design of phase 2. 

 

Grow Asia is committed to supporting the design and development of the next phase of VnSAT by working with MARD and the World Bank to prioritize the implementation of the 1m Ha Low Emissions Rice project under the new Food Innovation Network, which was adopted by the Minister of Agriculture on 19 December 2023. 

 

In parallel, Grow Asia is partnering with the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition for Food (FMC4F), which will focus on stimulating stronger demand drivers for sustainable rice in a major new project in 2024 that was announced at COP28. 

​

The Role of Digital Solutions in Rice

We know that digital solutions are critical to addressing many of the challenges in agriculture in the region. Digital technologies hold the key to smallholder productivity and can provide farmers with the right tools to lift themselves out of poverty. These tools include financing platforms, pest trackers, farmer training, satellite monitoring, and logistics planners. Farmers can use digital tools to increase their agricultural output and, with the right market support systems, can become financially included and prosper as middle-income families. 

 

We are only just beginning to see what digital solutions will achieve for farmers in ASEAN. In 2019, Grow Asia released its first Digital Directory of leading solutions and estimated that the listed solutions were being used by a meager 2.5% of the 73 million smallholders in the region. Since then, the market for digital agri-tech and fintech solutions has seen rapid expansion. Mobile solutions have evolved beyond the provision of information services (e.g. market price and weather information) and new end-to-end fintech solutions are appearing on the market to target the specific needs of farmers. 

 

The technologies can be loosely grouped into four categories namely: 1) Market Access; 2) Supply Chain Efficiency & Smart Logistics; 3) Financial Services; and 4) Information Services but the development of solutions in all four categories is still relatively nascent in Viet Nam despite the compelling market opportunities. 

​

Why Viet Nam? 

 

According to a recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association, Vietnam is a mobile-first market, with over 51 million smartphones in rural households, representing over 80% of the adult population. Nearly 90% of the rural population in Vietnam own mobile phones and while 70% of those are smartphones, their use is predominantly in the home due to limited 3G and 4G connections. Instant messaging apps are used 6-7 times per day (an average of 20 minutes per session); particularly, 90% of people who are on the Zalo app use it every day. 

 

Only a small proportion of farmers currently use agriculture-specific digital apps for rice farming. However, 75% reported that they are willing or strongly willing to use mobile apps for farming needs. Another key finding from recent surveys is that face-to-face interactions with field agents remain the most common and trusted methods for technical advice and performance assessment for farmers. While digital messaging tools assist these processes, they are unable to replace person-to-person exchange. 

 

Information flows in digital formats are strongest for weather, crop variety, and market-related topics (47%, 30%, and 30% of farmers, respectively), followed by topics of plant protection (including pesticide use), fertilizer, climate change, and land preparation (24% – 28% for each topic). The topics of irrigation and drainage, harvest and post-harvest, and financial support are exchanged the least frequently (3% – 19% for each topic). 

 

It is noteworthy that the majority of farmers who access agricultural applications are male (more than 90%) because men are typically the ones who directly engage in rice farming in the Mekong provinces. This suggests that an analysis of gender roles in agriculture production is necessary to identify the areas where women are more involved to advise the development of gender-inclusive digital tools. Interestingly, childless women are more likely to buy mobile data and seem more familiar with using a smartphone compared to women with children. 

 

These statistics indicate that the ownership and use of smartphones in rural areas in Vietnam are quite extensive and can create favorable conditions for scaling the use of digital tools. 

 

What do we need? 

 

Grow Asia is committed to fostering digital innovations in agriculture that prioritize the needs of farmers. We recognize that many digital solutions designed for smallholders often lack a robust process for understanding farmers as end-users. To address this gap, Grow Asia is seeking a Human-Centered Design (HCD) Consultant to design and deliver a comprehensive training program in a rural area of Southeast Asia. The training aims to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to incorporate HCD principles into their work, ultimately leading to more effective and farmer-centric digital solutions. 

 

Objectives of the HCD Training 

 

• Enhance participants' understanding of farmer needs, digital literacy, and technology access. 

• Impart knowledge of HCD principles and methodologies. 

• Enable participants to apply HCD to their specific projects and initiatives. 

• Foster networking and potential partnerships among participants. 

​

Scope of Work 

 

The HCD Consultant will be responsible for the following: 

• Program Design: Develop a comprehensive 3-day, 2-night HCD training program tailored to the needs of business leaders, start-ups, technology vendors, and farmers in Southeast Asia. The program should include a mix of theoretical instruction, interactive exercises, and real-world case studies. 

• Training Facilitation: Lead and facilitate the HCD training in a rural area of Southeast Asia, with logistical support from Grow Asia. The consultant should create a dynamic and engaging learning environment that encourages active participation and collaboration. 

• Material Development: Create and provide Grow Asia with high-quality training materials, including presentations, handouts, and templates, that can be reused for future training initiatives. 

• Post-Training Support: Offer ongoing support to Grow Asia and participants after the training, including answering questions, providing clarification, and sharing additional resources. 

 

Deliverables 

• Detailed HCD training program agenda and outline. 

• A comprehensive set of training materials (presentations, handouts, templates). 

• Final report summarizing the training outcomes, key learnings, and recommendations. 

 

Qualifications and Experience 

• Demonstrated expertise in HCD principles, methodologies, and tools. 

• Proven experience in designing and delivering engaging and effective training programs. 

• Strong understanding of the agricultural sector and the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia. 

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills. 

• Fluency in English and a relevant local language is highly desirable. 

 

Evaluation Criteria 

The HCD Consultant will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 

• Quality and relevance of the training program design. 

• Effectiveness of training facilitation and participant engagement. 

• Quality and reusability of training materials. 

• The overall impact of the training on participants' understanding and application of HCD. 

 

Timeline 

• Training Program Design: To be completed by the end of October 2024 

• HCD Training Delivery: last week of November or first week of December 

• Final Report Submission: end of December 

 

Deadline for Quotes

Quotes should be submitted for the attention of Chrissa Borja, Head of Program, Grow Asia at chrissa@growasia.org no later than 29 November 2024 

 

Terms of Engagement 

As a non-profit entity, Grow Asia typically prioritizes partnership arrangements with vendors on a pro-bono or low-bono rate in exchange for a suite of customizable in-kind benefits. We would be happy to explore the following options: 

 

• Acknowledgement and brand positioning as Grow Asia’s Innovation Challenge Partner 

• Complimentary Membership of the Grow Asia Business Council for one year (worth USD30k) 

• Complimentary tickets and branding at the Grow Asia Investment Forum 

• Dedicated social media mentions and collaborative editorials on topics of mutual interest 

 

About Grow Asia 

 

Grow Asia was established by the World Economic Forum in 2015 in collaboration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in response to the urgent need to transform the region’s food systems. As a multi-stakeholder platform, Grow Asia works with more than 650 global and regional partners to broker market-driven solutions across Southeast Asia. 

 

The Grow Asia network comprises our regional office in Singapore and six country chapters in Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. The network operates through 44 national and sectoral Working Groups and is already reaching more than 2.5 million smallholders across Southeast Asia with solutions that will empower them to transition to a low-carbon future through innovative finance and digitalization. In 2020, Grow Asia was accredited as an Entity Associated with ASEAN. This accreditation recognizes the important role Grow Asia plays in the region, particularly in facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships and acting as a delivery mechanism for ASEAN programs.