Solving Complex Challenges in Asia through Business: Katharine Pang

Dalyell Scholar, Katharine Pang along with her team participated in the 2022 Engage Asia Challenge to come up with innovative solutions for Asia, ultimately placing second. Katharine shares her experience below. 

Team Fish Farm Community Partnership: 

Amanda Tanutama, Katharine Pang, Paris Wong and William Gunns.

Describe your team's problem and solution.

Our multidisciplinary team of 4 decided to solve the complex problem of the depletion of fish stocks in the Scarborough Shoal. We chose Johnny, a Filipino fisherman as the protagonist of our complex problem. He suffers from the inability to provide for his family due to the depletion of fish stocks in the Shoal. This is a significant problem faced by 627,000 small, non-commercial Filipino fishermen and their families. Our solution’s goal is to restore their income and raise the supply of fish stocks to realise SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth in Asia.

 

Our final solution is the proposal of a fish farm community partnership. Under the partnership, fish farms such as Marcela provide underused land-based fish farms and training programs for Filipino fishermen to become fish farmers. High-value species such as milkfish and tilapia will be grown in these land-based fish farms. To repay fish farms’ investment, fishermen independently operate the underused fish farms upon completion of the training program. They then enter a contract that stipulates the mandated sale of all produce to fish farm companies such as Marcela at 10% below the market price for 5 years. After establishing their reputation, the partnership scheme will attract more fish farm companies to join, helping more Filipino fishermen. It creates a sustainable cycle of income where fishermen are able to create their own source of income and fish farm companies receive more profit.

What challenges did you encounter and how did you resolve them?

Solving our complex problem was not smooth sailing.  Our complex problem is an economic, social, and environmental sustainability issue. Its multifaceted nature explains why it is hard to solve. I encouraged our team members to persevere and highlighted that this was a valuable learning experience for solving challenges related to sustainability before stepping into the workforce. While the journey was daunting, we all supported each other and brought in different disciplinary perspectives to ultimately develop a comprehensive solution. We also received support from our mentor, academics, industry leaders, and policymakers who helped us refine our solution.  

Another difficulty was challenging the stereotype that sustainability problems must be solved by the government only. Since the government are the policymakers, we initially thought of a governmental solution but this would not combat the problem immediately. From our studies in the Business School we realised that we could solve the problem from a corporate perspective. Our fish farm community partnership creates common value between fish farm companies and Filipino fishermen. Under the partnership, fish farm companies benefit from increased revenue and the opportunity to demonstrate corporate social responsibility. Filipino fishermen also benefit from increased income and an additional career option. As the program builds its reputation, it will attract and benefit more fish farm companies and Filipino fishermen. 

What did you gain from the Engage Asia Challenge?

We learned quite a few lessons from the Engage Asia Challenge. First, is that we should never underestimate our potential in creating a global sustainable impact. As university students, we are not sustainability experts however, the Engage Asia Challenge made us realise how we can develop innovative solutions to real-life problems. While it is a challenging process, it was meaningful as we were able to contribute towards realising SDG 8 and it created a solid foundation for when we work in organisations that need to solve sustainability problems.

Second, it is important to think outside the box. We realised how corporations can play a transformative role in accelerating sustainable impact and devised our solution to align corporate and non-commercial Filipino fishermen’s interests together. Thinking creatively is not only applicable to resolving sustainability issues in Asia, but also to overcoming individual, regional and global problems. 

Third, a collaborative and supportive atmosphere is essential for success. Perseverance, open communication and fruitful collaboration among our team members are not the only success factors. In fact, our dedicated and supportive peer mentor, academics, industry leaders and policy advisors were also crucial to our success. I would like to thank them for contributing their expertise, providing insightful feedback and encouraging us to continue in this sustainability journey. 

Lastly, I am grateful to the Business School for providing a valuable opportunity to apply our skills and knowledge to accelerate sustainability impact, build networks with our peers, industry leaders and leading academics and hone our leadership potential.