PRISMA - Farmer Segmentation Public Sector and Government Consultant
Project Overview and Role:
The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Incomes through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA) is a five-year program (2019 – 2023) funded by the Australian Government’s aid program and implemented in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia. The program will build upon the achievements and results of Phase 1 (2013-2018), using a market systems development (MSD) approach to support inclusive economic growth in Indonesia’s agriculture sector.
PRISMA will improve smallholder farmers’ competitiveness, access to new markets, and better inputs, know-how, and technology. It will aim to achieve a sustainable 30% increase in the net incomes of a further 700,000 smallholder farming households in the six target Indonesia by 2023 (a total of 1 million farming households).
Vegetable Portfolio Background:
Vegetable production in Papua and West Papua (PWP) fulfils less than half the local demand (181,000 tons). This is because local farmers have low productivity due to low-quality inputs, poor agriculture practices, and lack of access to market information, particularly for indigenous women. PRISMA will help address these constraints by using an ethnographic cluster approach to support seed companies in promoting high-quality seeds, introducing GAP (Good Agriculture Practice) to farmers, and improving the relationship between farmers, off-takers, and end-consumers.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
Market systems development works on changing the behaviour of market actors, especially farmers, through introducing new products and services. Therefore, understanding farmers’ characteristics, behaviour, needs, preferences, worldview, and decision-making is required to build a successful intervention. Subsequently, sociocultural contexts, behavioural incentives and barriers behind their decisions can be mapped, providing insights into the implementation strategy. These insights should be obtained from prior studies about farming characteristics and interventions’ market assessment stage.
Hence, Papua is a rich, diverse and culturally dynamic region on the easternmost border of Indonesia, making it difficult to address every constraint at once. This difficulty also occurs to get into marginalised farmers’ mindset. It requires robust qualitative research through an ethnography approach through in-depth interviews, extensive observation, and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to understand the sociocultural and economic dynamics and context surrounding them. Therefore, PRISMA will conduct a study called “Farmers Segmentation”, which will help us to develop farmers profiling for each segment, including their household demographic; behaviour, beliefs, and values; income potential, and degree of farmer professionalisation.
This profile will be helpful information to develop specific guidance in Good Agricultural Practice/GAP, Farmer’s Business Analysis/FBA, and communication methods to improve engagement with indigenous farmers in Tanah Papua. Furthermore, PRISMA aspires to build solid collaboration with the local government and local community to ensure the betterment of targeting indigenous farmers as beneficiaries. Accordingly, the purpose of this assignment is to hire a consultant that will:
- Managing local government and local communities relations regarding the “Farmers Segmentation Study” at the district and provincial levels.
- Conducting field research and desk research to gather relevant information in gaining a deep understanding of the local government and local communities’ perspective toward policy and regulation in agriculture, particularly in the vegetable sector.
- Follow up on local government and local communities’ response and interest regarding the study findings, insight and recommendations to ensure their willingness to use it as their references for their policy and regulation toward agriculture programs for better-targeting farmers as beneficiaries.
The consultant is expected to deliver tasks including but not limited to the following:
- Managing government relations as well as arranging government permits in conducting the study both at district and provincial levels
- Follow up on government response on study planning and initial findings
- Implementing and exploring a questions list developed by PRISMA consultants.
- Collect qualitative raw data by conducting field visits, collecting relevant information, and desk research to gain a deep understanding of the government perspective toward policy and regulation in agriculture, particularly in the vegetable sector both for La Pago (Jayawijaya – Wamena) and Domberay Cluster (Manokwari).
- Work closely with the Lead Consultant of Farmer’s Segmentation to provide the raw data regularly.
- Support Lead Consultant of Farmers Segmentation to develop farmers profiling for each segment (Household Demographic;
- Farmer Behavior, Beliefs, and Values; Income Potential; Degree of Farmer Professionalization).
- Support Lead Consultant of Farmers Segmentation to provide insight and recommendations for specific guidance in Good.
- Agricultural Practice/GAP, Farmers Business Analysis/FBA, and Communication methods, which aimed to improve the engagement with indigenous farmers in Tanah Papua.
- Support Lead Consultant of Farmers Segmentation to provide recommendations for better-targeting farmers as beneficiaries for government and local community programs in the vegetable sector.
- Share the research findings and report with local governments and communities at the district and provincial levels by conducting a presentation.
- Follow up on government response and interest in using the study findings, insight and recommendation in their policy and regulation toward agriculture programs for better-targeting farmers as beneficiaries.
The consultant may propose additional tasks or modify the abovementioned functions based on mutual agreement.
Required Qualifications:
- Possessing a graduate degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Social Welfare, Social Sciences, Humanities or another relevant major from a reputable university;
- Proven relevant professional experience in qualitative research, particularly on market research in rural areas, economic behaviour and socio-cultural mapping.
- An excellent understanding of psychographic and behavioural segmentation;
- Demonstrates professional experience in converting research results into concise and actionable recommendations;
- Having a high level of analytical and critical thinking skills and the capacity to innovate and to build the capacity of others;
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.
Desirable criteria:
- Working experience with local government both at district and provincial levels
- Have strong networking with local government both at the district and provincial levels
- Excellence understanding of local government bureaucracy and government program planning in agriculture, particularly in the vegetable sector
- Working experience in a reputable research institution, a non-government organisation in Tanah Papua, a development program in Tanah Papua, and exposure to agri-business or rural markets.
- Working experience in qualitative and consumer behaviour research in Papua is an advantage
- Experience in conducting ethnographic study/research.
- Excellence understanding of the sociocultural context of Tanah Papua
- Understanding the local accent of Tanah Papua
Company Overview:
About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world's most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people's lives.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.
Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.
This application closed on 25 May 2023.
Females, males, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
