DiFF project workshop in Luang Prabang, Laos

This article was co-written by Rida Akzar and Isaac Lyne

From 23-27 January 2023, members of the DiFF project team gathered for a workshop in Luang Prabang, Laos. The workshop was a critical step for members of the project team who are based in Australia, Cambodia and Laos to all meet together for the first time and to discuss the project objectives, concepts, research activities and methods, research questions and research planning for the immediate future and also for the next five years. 

In addition to learning more about one another’s universities and faculties, participants saw presentations from the Cambodia and Laos teams respectively on strategic issues and policy developments related to digital financial services and agriculture in their countries. 

They heard for instance, from Dr. Salika Onsy (National University of Laos) about the efforts of Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public (BCEL) in Laos to advance branchless banking and cashless payments. 

They also heard from Mr. SAN Vibol (Royal University of Phnom Penh) about Cambodian policy objectives for the digital economy in the coming decades and also about the development of Khmer Agriculture Suite (KAS) which is aimed at developing an open digital platform for agricultural value chains in Cambodia.

A few members of the team presented an overview of the quantitative and qualitative desk-based research that will be completed in the coming year, including: 1) a systematic literature review of the global evidence for impacts of mobile/digitalised financial services on smallholder farming households, together with the use of machine learning to develop a robust corpus of all of the relevant literature; and 2) stakeholder mapping that will provide a time-specific snapshot of the extent of the financial services ecosystem in Laos and Cambodia, with details of all of the digitalised services that can potentially be made accessible to members of smallholder farming households. 

This was followed by an overview of quantitative and qualitative field-based research activities that will be launched in the next year. Associate Professor Robert Schupp based at the University of Michigan, gave a primer-presentation on experimental research methods that will be used in Laos and a discussion of the household survey instrument that will be mobilised in Cambodia. 

The team also discussed protocols (including ethics) and practicalities for conducting qualitative interviews and focus group discussions to take place in both countries. 

Last, there was a discussion around the vision for how the quantitative and qualitative research packages will operate together in a truly interdisciplinary research project where the insights from one set of methodologies will complement the other. This was complemented by a presentation from Dr. Daovy Kongmanila at the National University of Laos on the theory of change methodology, brainstorming the preconditions for success, and impact pathways, using the example of building capacity of agricultural extension. 

Finally, the work for the next 18 months was discussed in detail with attention to ways of working together productively in that time. This was partly informed by a presentation of a Researcher Field Guide that will be used in the training of research assistants and enumerators by the teams based in Cambodia and Laos respectively. 

Key take-aways from the workshop include that: the current state of mobile financial services (digital finance) in Laos and Cambodia is developing with mobile phone use and that is being highly supported by the governments in both countries with the aims of increasing people’s access to financial services. Moreover, the potential of mobile financial services in the agricultural sector is promising. Given the dispersed locations of farmers, mobile financial services provide alternatives to accessing services easily, for example for payments, credits, and savings.

The workshop was generously supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It was attended in person by Dr. Erin Taylor and Dr. Isaac Lyne (Western Sydney University Institute for Culture and Society); Dr. Alexandra Peralta and Dr. Rida Akzar (University of Adelaide Centre for Global Food and Resources); Professor Dexanourath Sengeduangdeth, Dr. Salika Onsy, Dr. Daovy Kongmanila, and Mr. Khamtou Kanyavong (National University of Laos Faculty of Social Science); Dr. Spoann Vin, Dr. Thath Rido, and Mr. Vibol San (Royal University of Phnom Penh Faculty of Development Studies) and Dr. Todd Sanderson and Mr Isaac Ewald (ACIAR) also attended in person. Other project members joining remotely were Professor Heather Horst and Professor Katherine Gibson (Western Sydney University Institute for Culture and Society), Associate Professor Robert Schupp (Michigan State University), and Dr Adam Loch (University of Adelaide Centre for Global Food and Resources).