- Japan SDGs Innovation Challenge for UNDP Accelerator Labs -Identified SDGs issues
and expertise/technologies expected fromJapanese private sector partners
UNDP Accelerator Lab Philippines (ALab PH)

Identified SDGs issues by UNDP Accelerator Lab

The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit posits that addressing the food systems can pave the way forthe attainment of all the Sustainable Development Goals. It is in this context that ALab PH has responded tothe invitation of the Local Government of Malay to collaborate in building models of food security andlivelihood resilience.
Boracay Island in Malay, which is located in the province of Aklan, is a tourist paradise rivaling other global
destinations. The island was closed for almost three (3) years, which hurt not just the tourist industry but
more importantly the more than 17,000 workers on the island. Food has been a source of vulnerability for theisland, which is entirely dependent on agricultural shipments from other neighboring provinces and regions.
Boosting local supply and connecting local producers to the Boracay market may be a way to not only ensure
food security but also provide alternative and quality incomes to locals: tourist workers, who went back tofarming and fishing to survive the closures.

The collaboration opens theopportunity to pilot
governance models andestablish sustainable andresilient food production
practices that enable policy
harmonization andimplementing innovations onfood systems.

As Malay bounces back, it has become clear to policymakers, business owners, and citizens that tourism will
and should never be the same as before: where dependence to single-economy made it vulnerable to shocks
and can paralyze or shut down the food supply chains and livelihood sources of both the locals andbusinesses.
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Identified SDGs issues by UNDP Accelerator Lab

Potential
beneficiaries/customers

The sustainable food production farm aims to demonstrate a model ofproducing food sustainably and resiliently, which can impact thefarming practices and livelihood of around 160 smallholding farmers
and their families spread out in 15 barangays (villages) in Malay.
These farmers own land of less than 1 hectare in size located mostly inless favorable areas (i.e., mountainous, sloping, etc.), thus must be set
up for climate resilience and utilized at the most optimal level tomaximize food production.
Ramping up the local food production will also benefit the private
sector (market), specifically the food businesses, through a shortened
supply chain of sourcing their agriculture product requirements while
helping the Malay food producers and also the economic performanceof the municipality.
The Malay LGU also benefits from the technological solutions andgovernance model that will be developed, guiding a more robust andresponsive policymaking process, policies, and programs.
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Planned/ongoing solutions by UNDP Accelerator Lab
The ALab PH team conducted scoping of the issues, field research,and facilitated the co-design workshop. A portfolio of solutions
was developed that guided the following experiments.
• Food demand survey among Boracay restaurants to determine
vegetables and supplier requirements and scoping of available
data from local government partners• Service design for Malay Quarantine Office as a data source ofBoracay’s demand situation• Preparation for establishing the multistakeholder
governance platform for validation with key stakeholders.
This opportunity presents leverage to utilize technologicalinnovations to bridge national policymaking with local
implementation through:• Smart agriculture practices with data capability to better
inform food systems interventions• Experimentation on building mechanisms to promote
inclusive and resilient agriculture supply chains.
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4Planned/ongoing solutions by UNDP Accelerator Lab• Requirements for their vegetable suppliers:
Food Demand Survey Pilot Results• Can consistently supply on schedule• Respondents: 4 Restaurants• Able to issue official receipts• Desired Quality: Fresh and Correct Size
• Accepts cash and credit for payment
38% of volume
sourced from DirectSuppliers

38%

62%
62% of volume sourced
from Local Markets/retailers

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Planned/ongoing solutions by UNDP Accelerator Lab• In addition to the demand survey, the team is also scoping available data frompartner local government offices and putting them is visual format:
This is a 2nd quarter data of the Malay
Quarantine Office that provides permits
for agriculture products to cross Boracay.
This shows that market retailers (TalipapaBukid, D’Mall) are the primary importersof agriculture products, includingvegetables.
Hotels and restaurants are only directly
sourcing either meat, seafood, or fruits.
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Planned/ongoing solutions by UNDP Accelerator Lab• In addition to the demand survey, the team is also scoping available data frompartner local government offices and putting them is visual format:
2019

2021

2020

These are production data of Malay from theProvincial Agriculture Office that shows thevegetables being produced in themunicipality and the monthly volumeproduced.

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Planned/ongoing solutions by UNDP Accelerator Lab
Insights from the demand survey and scoping of available data:
On matching Malay’s production with the market demand:o Vegetable production in Malay will not be able to match the total market demand. The farmers
are not producing the vegetables with high demand. Factors: high demand vegetables (cabbage,carrots) are not growing in Malay and they do not know the market demand opportunity.
o The market retailers are the biggest receivers of agricultural products going to Boracay. In thepretesting conducted for the Malay Food Demand Survey, the food businesses’ usual practice isto buy from market retailers for convenience and less need for storage. This makes the market
retailers the potential target market for the Malay farmers.
On data as a key factor to improving the food production:o Available data are not comparable because these have different timeframeso Critical to set up with partner local governments the mindset and capacities of being data-driven
in their processes to better inform their policy and program interventions.

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8Expertise/technologies expected from Japanese partners
Challenge 1: cutting-edge, low-cost technology with data capability that can be used to boost vegetableproduction but efficiently using the limited land and water resources in Malay?
The innovation and expertise sought involves:• Design of a sustainable demonstration farm with theuse of IoT devices for efficient food production• Effective data presentation to government decisionmakers and open data access to stakeholders
Anticipated benefits of the innovation:
1. Standardize unit of measure to help forecast andreport the supply situation of the local government,
thus informing agriculture support
2. The innovation will help food producers improvetheir farming practices and productivity
3. The innovation as a model to other LGUs andcommunities interested building future-ready foodproduction

Source:https://www.japan.go.jp/technology/innovation/digitalfarming.html

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Expertise/technologies expected from Japanese partners
Indicative budget from the Aklan Provincial Agriculture Office, which
is one of the partner stakeholders, for one (1) unit of a greenhousewith hydroponics as a vegetable production facility:
INCLUSIONS

Amount (USD)

One (1) unit of top vent greenhouse-Dimension: 23.2 meters X 30 meters
Greenhouse area: 348 square meters
With hydroponic floating raft system
With Inside shading system
With Recycle tank and cooling system
Labor for construction, set-up, and installation

26,776.15

The current facility does not have IoT and smart agriculture
solutions yet.

The Malay LGU has 0.5 hectares of land that can be utilized forsetting up a demonstration farm for the project.

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Expertise/technologies expected from Japanese partners

Source:https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/travel-food/article/2094791/future-farming-japangoes-vertical-and-moves-indoors?module=hard_link&pgtype=article
Source:https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/2094
426/farming-without-soil-new-japanese-tech-makes-growingfruit?module=perpetual_scroll_1&pgtype=article&campaign=
2094426
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Expertise/technologies expected from Japanese partners
Challenge 2: Governance platforms that consolidates production supply and demand data in responseto the agriculture supply chain needs and related activities to get the food from the source up to theend-users and consumers.
The innovation and expertise sought involves:• Design/prototyping of a platform to match demand andsupply data
• Business case development, including cost-benefit analysis
and business planning for potential scaling
Anticipated benefits of the innovation:
1. Benefit to producers – guaranteed market and income for theirproducts, participation in the supply chain
2. Benefits to businesses – shorter supply chain, contribution to
local economic development
3. Benefit to government – robust and responsive food systems
policies and interventions4. Benefit to society – localized supply chains builds resilience toshocks; promotes sustainability and shared prosperity

Source:https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/env/env_policy/attach/pdf/meadri-4.pdf

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Expertise/technologies expected from Japanese partners
ALab PH team and Malay LGU team are preparing topilot a market-matching experiment wherein Malay
farmers will produce and sell their vegetables to Boracaymarket retailers (“talipapa”) according to the agreed
volume and delivery schedule.
The Malay LGU will be facilitating the entire processwith support from ALab PH and the Aklan Provincial
Office. This is for implementation in the 4th quarter of2022.

Other available platforms of the National
Government where farmers can sell produce tomore markets:
1. E-Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita online store (Departmentof Agriculture)
2. Deliver-E
3. Digi-palengke

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Resources the Accelerator Lab can provide
ALab PH has been working with the Malay LGU (Local Government Unit) in scoping the food systems challenges andopportunities of the locality. Through exploration initiatives, field ethnography, and facilitated processes of systemic
design and foresight with multiple key stakeholders from the government, private sector, and civil societyorganizations, insights were gathered that guided the learning actions for experimentation. The stakeholders may betapped for data, current practices, and resources needed in the implementation.
The team is also in close coordination with the Climate and Biodiversity team for thematic expertise and alignment
with national directives. The UN Country Teams FAO, UNIDO, and IFAD are also consulted for synergies and areas forcollaboration on food systems initiatives.
In summary:
1. Research, reports, and data from: i) rapid ethnography and co-design workshop with local stakeholders; ii)
agriculture production data provided by field partners; iii) results of data experiments that will be conducted.
2. Human resources: in-house capability through the Accelerator Lab (innovation specialists), Climate Action Team(domain experts), and Pintig Lab (in-house advanced analytics lab); ii) networked capability through rosters ofconsultants and long-term agreements with data science firms.
3. Access to networks and local and multiple sector partnersAll Rights Reserved by UNDP 2022

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What is Systemic Design & Foresight?
• The Co-Design Workshop facilitatedby the Accelerator Lab is a social
innovation approach that combines
Design Thinking, Systems Thinking,and Futures Thinking. The process
allows for a multi-stakeholder groupof participants to participate in adesign workshop with the objective ofunderstanding the context and thedesired system state in order toideate new solutions for the future.
The resulting output is the Portfolioof Interventions that targets key
points in the system to ensure
system change.

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15Stakeholders of the project: Government
The Malay LGU is the frontliner of the Malay Food Systems Innovation
implementation in collaboration with UNDP ALab PH. Within the LGU, thefollowing departments are directly involved in the project:• Office of the Municipal Mayor that leads the initiative and designated a
Focal Coordinator for the project• Municipal Agriculture Office for the production initiatives and support tolocal food producers• Municipal Economic and Enterprise Development for the livelihood
enterprise platforms to be implemented• Municipal Cooperative Development for developing the capacities of foodproducers as cooperatives• Municipal Tourism Office for advocacy campaigns on sustainable foodsystems and tourism
Given the rapid timeframe for this pilot, the Office of the Municipal Mayorand Agriculture will be tapped directly for implementation initiatives.
Other government collaborators for the Malay Food Systems Innovation are
the Aklan Provincial Agriculture Office and the Department of Agriculture –Regional Field Office 6 (DA-RFO 6) that can provide policy and scale directions
and resources moving forward.
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A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is being
developed for the Malay Food Systems Innovationfor the signing of the Malay LGU, Aklan Provincial
Government, and UNDP ALab PH.

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Stakeholders of the project: Private sector and Civil Society
The following sectors will also be
involved in the project:• Private Sector• Food businesses in Boracay• Groups: Philippine Chamber ofCommerce and Industry – Aklan
Chapter, Compliance Associationof Boracay• Civil society, non-governmentorganizations• UN Country Teams: FAO, UNIDO,and IFAD
• Boracay Women Producers
Cooperative
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Planned activities and timeline of the project (JIN)
2023

2022

November

UNDP ALabPHJapanese
partnercompany

December Selection of a partnercompany Contracting Project kick-off

 Concept creation

 Stakeholder
consultation with
Malay LGU and foodproducers
 Field visit andconduct of desktop
research Stakeholder
coordination
 Co-design and cocreation of concept
 Procurement ofmaterials (ifapplicable)

 Submission of anapplication
 Contracting andinception talks

 Presentation anddiscussion of initialsolutions forconsideration
 Co-design and cocreation of concept

Q1

Q2

July-August Concept creation
 Concept validation

 Concept validation

 Concept validation

 Collaborate todesign experiments,including implementation and M&E Plan Execution ofExperiment withembedded M&E forlearning Field visits andcoordination

 Submission of Final
Experiment Reportwithrecommendations for
scale

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Planned activities and timeline of the project (Malay Food Systems Innovation)
2022

2023

• February: Co-design mission• March to April: Portfolio validation, data mapping• May to June: Designing data experiments and themultistakeholder group platform• June: Resource alignment with local partners, pretestof demand survey• Q3• Partnership MOU• Iteration of experiments• Market-matching design• Q4• Experimentation phase• Review, scaling• Q1 to Q2• Iteration of experiment design• Implementation of advocacy initiatives• Q3 to Q4• Scaling out to other areas

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Expected outcomes and follow-up activities to the project
To showcase the outcomes of theproject:Activities after the project period(April 2023 onwards)• Presentation of experiment results to theDepartment of Agriculture and its regional offices,
the Provincial Government of Aklan, the Malay LGU,and other national agencies and LGUs that have aninterest in the project.

• Feed into the Malay’s local policymaking body toinstitutionalize support for food systems and otherrelated social responsibility campaigns• At the CO level, presentation to the UN Country
Teams with food systems initiatives (FAO, UNIDO,and IFAD) and Programme teams Climate andBiodiversity for portfolio integration• Offer the solutions for the possible adoption ofother municipalities within the Aklan province ]• Tapping the LGU’s information arm that utilizes
mass media platforms (radio, TV, and print) for wide
citizen awareness and campaign• Scale the business model and set up to other small
tourist islands with similar contexts, such as
Siargao, Palawan, and Samal, through the UNDP
Climate and Biodiversity team’s project sites (seenext slide)• Webinar, podcasts, blogs, and social media to reacha broader network at the local and global level• Documentation and codifying of the projectprocess through publication of the project work

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Expected outcomes and follow-up activities to the project
POSSIBLE SCALING PATHWAYS OF THE PROJECTUNDP PH Climateand Biodiversity
TeamMalay businessmodel(ALab PH and JIN)
Government
partners

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Small tourist islands
such as Siargao,
Palawan, and Samal
Aklan Province toscale in its 17
municipalities
Regional
Department ofAgriculture21