Antecedentes

Agriculture is a prime driver of the economic growth and poverty reduction in Cambodia. This sector has employed 35 percent of the labor force and have a direct link to the livelihood of 70 percent of Cambodians residing in rural areas. Through agriculture expansion and diversification, Cambodia has transformed itself from a self-sufficient to food surplus country and becomes an active supplier of global food markets and raw materials for the region.

Agriculture sector has grown at a fast trajectory which its dynamism has been pushed by modernization, improvement of rural infrastructure, and regional integration. Even so, most of rural areas have remained depending on rain to water crops and agronomic practices have still adopted traditional techniques which undermines farmers’ income and face many risks. To sustain farmers’ livelihoods, farmers’ capacity needs to improve to cope with climate change, adopt smart agriculture techniques, meet market demands, and enhance on-farm productivity in order to raise income and keep agriculture competitive.

Most farmers in remoted areas have been identified to carry out all farm activities by themselves. They have worked with each partner through one to one basis and most of them do not have management capacity. Because of limited financial skills, they could not record all transactions, create a financial profile for credit as well as to use data to improve their profitability. In addition, they also have no secured buyers for their harvested crops. Over years, they are in a production-based model which buyers are searched once harvested or the products are available. This practice has caused product quality issues which farmers cannot get a premium price while processors cannot get the consistent quality of raw materials.

Like other countries, the advancement of digital technologies and the fast development of ICT in Cambodia lead to the creation of digital ecosystem and agri-tech platforms innovated by local service providers as well as foreign tech companies looking for expanding their services oversea. Many agri-tech platforms are designed to be a single stop shop which activities from farms to forks are recorded and data at each point throughout the process are collected. With the technologies, big data can be analyzed through artificial intelligence and provided real time information to farmers and concerned stakeholders for proactive and timely interventions. The agri-tech platforms have gained reputation and much attention as their features allows direct contact between individual farmers and partners without passing through bureaucratic middlemen process.

The outbreak of Covid 19 has taught new lessons in the ways of working, making business and living as its threats pose not only on human lives but the entire economy. Its negative impacts have predicted to be enormous during the outbreak leading the world to global recession and cause repercussion on the effort for economic recovery/resilience. The disease has caused pandemic which people are encouraged to telecommute and practice social distancing. With the ban on travel, movement and gathering, economic activities, including agriculture, have been downgraded and postponed which food security and feedstock for industries are at risk of shortage.

During this circumstance, UNDP aims to work with the Royal Government of Cambodia to continue the smooth operation of agriculture sector which farmers and related stakeholders can work with zero risk of disease infection. Keeping the agriculture function can protect many non-poor not falling back into poverty trap, ensure food security, and build the resilience of Cambodia for current and future economic recovery. UNDP is promoting the use of digital solutions to help farmers get back to farms while addressing uncoordinated and unconnected issues within the value chain.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant will conduct mapping exercise to identify the potential existing agricultural technology platforms including but not limited to its functionality, geographic coverages, product lines/services, target customers/suppliers and so on which have been operated by various players in Cambodia. The study expects to provide rigorous findings on areas which UNDP can tap in to harness digital technologies to address value chain issues which directly benefits both farmers and related value chain actors.

The consultant expects to provide five main deliverables as below:
1. Mapping all agri-tech platforms (public or private actors) in Cambodia: it provides the brief background of existence, evolution and current stage at the country level; list of all agri-tech platform/new start-ups which have been operated with the details on digital functions (what can do with the app and actual use); services/transactions (quality and quantity of transaction), target beneficiaries (farmers/stakeholders), target localities, agricultural commodities, and/or ecosystem (implementation arrangement) as well as cost & benefit analysis (analogy between classical practices and digital technologies).

2. Identification of potential areas which needs to intervene to ease the smooth function of agri-tech platforms: consult with agr-tech operators to define their needs including issues which third parties are best or more effective to help address, and supports which should be given to them;

3. Provide practical steps on promoting agri-tech to address farmers’ issues: consult with farmers, on the basis of individual (some farmers want to have direct transaction with target suppliers/buyers) and farmer organizations such as agricultural cooperatives, producer groups, self-help groups etc acting as intermediary for their members, about perception/exposure on/to agri-tech.

4. Based on their needs, capacity (exposure to technologies), and local contexts, the consultant recommends key activities which should be done through/replaced by digital technologies. The solutions should be viable by agri tech companies and easily accepted by farmers with simple adjustment on behavior change, and consequently lead to address issues/work more efficient than their current practices.

5. Identify potential crops or agriculture products produced by farmers as well as geographic locations (max. two provinces), that can be strategically benefits from agri-tech platforms for UNDP to consider supporting farmers onboarding onto the platforms.

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=75399 for more detail information about term of reference, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Competencias

•Capacity to engage with multiple stakeholders, and to synthesize and present complex arguments in easily understood terms.
•Superior written/ oral communication skills, with the ability to convey complex development concepts and recommendations.
 

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in agriculture, development studies or related fields

Years of experience:

• Extensive experience (over 5 years) on agriculture development, preferable in the Cambodian context
• Substantial experience of agribusiness and value chain development
• Knowledge and/or experience on agricultural technologies (e-commerce for agriculture)

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Khmer

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested individual offeror must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work

2. Financial proposal

3. Personal CV including experience in similar projects, list of publication written by Candidate and at least 3 references.

Interested Offerors?are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system?as?the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please?combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email chanpisey.ky@undp.org?and cc?procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted?in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice?page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice