The Firm to Farm Finance Toolkit

This toolkit aims to codify and use the learning of iDE-B’s successful rural business credit (RBC) pilot experience to inform the research and development of innovative and promising access to finance solutions for low-income households and communities. It provides step-by-step guidance on how to apply the human centered design (HCD) framework and tailor it for use in selecting and commercializing feasible, viable, and desirable financial products and service models. The toolkit suggests developing the firm to farm finance process in three phases:

• Phase 1 – Hear: This phase involves understanding the end users and other stakeholders in the context of the problem statement. It includes researching existing knowledge bases and sources to create a broad overview of key industry gaps, developments, technology, and market trends;
• Phase 2 – Create: This phase involves sorting, clustering, and analyzing the contextual data gathered over phase one to find patterns that point to untapped customer segments, market opportunities, or niches to address the root cause of problems;
• Phase 3 – Deliver: This phase involves establishing an ongoing process that connects innovation partners with scaling partners to deliver the solutions rapidly, sustainably, and on a large scale.