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Our Challenge Areas
For Cohort 2, SEEd.Lab has crafted challenges and problem statements which are reflections of real-world issues that exist within 4 domains:
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Education & Skill
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Food & Agriculture
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Health & Hygiene
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Personal & Financial Security
We have zoomed in on areas of problem that could be explored further in fulfilling the mission of SEEd.Lab.
Find an area that resonates with you. If you have a Wildcard idea that does not fall into any of the domains, we want to hear them anyway! Submit your Wildcard idea via the Idea Submission Form.
Education & Skill
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The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) recorded a total of 453,258 registered Persons with Disabilities in Malaysia, 34.8% of whom are facing learning-disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, cerebral palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Research has shown that early intervention for children with learning disabilities can improve a child’s overall development. Children who receive appropriate education and support at key developmental stages are more likely to gain the social skills essential to their interactions and participations as a member of the larger society. Parents of these children can learn early on how to help their child improve mentally, emotionally, and physically throughout the developmental stages with assistance from teachers and specialists.
Learning disabilities are becoming an increasingly common challenge that impacts many children and parents in Malaysia. Over 19,000 children have been diagnosed with learning disabilities while many more may have not been diagnosed and/or unregistered. The low uptake of registration with DSW may be attributed due to fear of stigma and discrimination among parents, as well as lack of sufficient knowledge or tool to aid in early detection. We look for potential ideas or solutions that can create a positive impact on the lives of young children facing developmental challenges by empowering teachers and/or parents to identify and assist children who may face any learning disabilities through early age screening (3 - 6 years old).
Problem statement:
How might we create innovative solutions to identify and support children (3 - 6 years old) who may face learning disabilities so that the teachers/parents can initiate early intervention.
Sources:
1. Department of Statistics Malaysia, Social Statistics Bulletin Malaysia 2018
2. UNICEF Malaysia, Childhood Disability In Malaysia
Food & Agriculture
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The agriculture sector contributes approximately 7%, worth RM101.5 billion, to Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product and employs approximately 1.5 million people. The industry however is largely dominated by smallholder farmers estimated between 500,000 to 600,000 farmers.
Smallholders are normally associated with small operators farming industrial crops, such as rubber, oil palm, coconut, cocoa, pepper, and kenaf, and food crops such as paddy, fruits, and vegetables. It is estimated that majority of smallholders farmers in Malaysia operate on less than 2 hectares each, yet accounting for 97% of vegetable farms, producing 94% of rubber plantations and 96% of cocoa.
Productivity value of individual smallholder farmer is usually low, making it one of the many contributing factors that hinders them from access to financial services such as short-term loans. This becomes a hurdle for farmers from increasing yield as they are unable to use working capital to purchase quality seeds or adopt new technologies, for instance.
As the majority of smallholder farmers remain without access to regulated loans and lack credit worthiness, they fall prey to informal loans charging prohibitively high interest rates. This results in the majority of farmers being trapped under vicious cycle of debt and ranked in the lower income bracket of B40. This is evident from the fact that a paddy farmer’s mean monthly income, for instance, is only RM2,527
Problem statement:
How might we enable access to finance for smallholder farmers so that they can increase their yield and income.
Sources:
1. Agricultural Transformation and Inclusive Growth - The Malaysian Experience, WorldBank, 2019
2. Smallholders still crucial to agricultural sector, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, February 1 - 7, 2016
Health & Hygiene
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In 2019, it was estimated that 73.6% from total 154,000 deaths were due to Non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This includes diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol which are the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases that are the leading cause of death in Malaysia. The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) reveals that the prevalence of NCD continues to rise in Malaysia in the past few years with an estimated 3.9 million (18.3%) adults living with diabetes, 6.4 million (30.0%) with hypertension, 8 million (38.1%) with hypercholesterolemia.
It is also alarming that the prevalence of NCD is higher in those from the bottom forty or B40 income categories compared to the middle forty (M40) and top twenty (T20) income groups. The major issues in treatment of NCDs for the B40 community are lack of awareness and acceptance of the diseases, leading to lack of proper disease management. Often, they only realised that they have NCD at a chronic stage and by then it would be difficult for them to reduce health risk/complication. Long term monitoring and lifestyle changes in terms of diet and exercise are not given adequate importance. Ease of access to hospitals and medicines are also barriers for optimizing care.
Leveraging technologies can have a positive impact in managing NCDs as this will be able to increase access to timely intervention and help in continuing treatment. We look for potential ideas or solutions that can assist the B40 community to get better access to cost effective treatment and long-term management of NCD using technology.
Problem statement:
1. How might we create a more accessible and cost effective access to treatments of NCDs using technology for B40 community.
2. How might we increase acceptance of long-term management of NCDs for the B40 population using technology for better health management.
Sources:
1. National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019: Non-communicable diseases, healthcare demand, and health literacy—Key Findings
2. National Strategic Plan for Non-Communicable Disease (NSPNCD) 2016-2025
3. Urban Health and the Prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases in Malaysia, Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences
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There are about 5.5 million adolescents (aged 13 to 17 years) in Malaysia. A national survey by the Ministry of Health revealed that in 2017 about 10-20% of Malaysian adolescents were having psychosocial problems. In addition to that, 11% of Malaysian secondary school students face severe depression, anxiety and stress which are amongst the mental health issues that are increasing year by year.
Adolescent period comes with its own challenges, insecurities, and sensitivities, in addition to which there are other factors that contribute to mental health issues. Among common challenges adolescents face are emotional problems ( including children who feel unhappy and often worry), hyperactivity (including restlessness) and lack of pro-social skills including.
Majority of adolescents who are dealing with mental health issues are not getting the appropriate care needed. The most common reasons preventing people from obtaining assistance includes the stigma attached to mental health issues, and the fear or shame associated with it and the lack of acceptance of having a problem by self and others. We look for potential ideas or solutions in providing innovative, trustable and accessible mental health services for adolescents.
Problem statement:
How might we enable trustworthy and accessible mental health services and support system for adolescents.
Sources:
1. Social Inequalities and Health in Malaysia: The State of Households 2020 Part III. – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Khazanah Research Institute
2. National health & morbidity survey 2017, adolescent mental health
3. National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019: Non-communicable diseases, healthcare demand, and health literacy—Key Findings
Personal & Financial Security
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Based on a study published by World Bank, only 60.8% of working Malaysians are actively contributing to their retirement savings. 75% of the total 15 million Employees Provident Fund contributors do not meet the minimum savings target of around RM240,000 by retirement age, while the bottom 20% of contributors have less than RM7,000 in savings on average. Post-retirement, this can be translated into monthly benefit of less than RM1,050 which is only slightly above the poverty line income of RM980.
Another study published by RinggitPlus, found that a large number of the population did not have adequate coverage in their savings. More than 53% of the respondents could not survive beyond three months after they lost their jobs and nearly 50% of the respondents had not even started retirement planning.
Among the main reasons cited as the root of this issue are due to low awareness amongst Malaysians on the importance of saving money, not being able to afford to save enough, overwhelmed with existing debt and lack of time and knowledge on financial planning.
We look for potential ideas or solutions that could increase awareness on saving culture as well as enable active savings among young adults and children.
Problem statement:
How might we enable innovative mechanism(s) to increase savings rate for young Malaysian adults and/or children so that they can have better financial security.
Sources:
1. A Silver Lining: Productive and Inclusive Aging for Malaysia, World Bank, 2020
2. RinggitPlus: Malaysian Financial Literacy Survey 2020, RinggitPlus, 2020
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Malaysia’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector makes a significant contribution of 38.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019 and a large chunk of these enterprises (76.5%) are made up of micro-enterprises. Based on revised downward GDP growth projection for Malaysia of between -2.0% to 0.5% in 2020, survey conducted by SME Corporation found that an estimated 73% of SMEs are expected to register losses in 2020, which could lead to business closures.
Most micro-entrepreneurs have minimal awareness and knowledge on the financial aspects of the business. This includes budgeting, recording of expenses and revenue, and on a bigger picture, understanding their overall business performance as well as financial standing based on these records. As a result, it affects their creditworthiness due to lack of track record, hindering them from getting any available financial facility to further grow and expand their businesses.
Putting these financial elements in place during the early stage of business can ensure a strong foundation to build on to move forward. A study by University Malaysia Sabah found, among others, that micro-entrepreneurs do not perform consistent record keeping at early business stage, presenting bigger challenge for the businesses to adopt good record keeping practices once they have grown. On top of that, some are unaware and hesitant in reaching out to access available external services. Addressing any lack of financial literacy and services among the micro-entrepreneurs is thus crucial for nation’s economic growth. We look for potential ideas or solutions that can improve micro-enterprises’ ability to plan and manage overall financial aspect that can result in sound business management.
Problem statement:
How might we improve financial literacy and create innovative solutions for micro entrepreneurs so that they can manage their businesses better
Sources:
1. The Financial Literacy of the Entrepreneurs of Micro Businesses in Sabah, S.Topimin, S.R. Mohd Hashim, 2020
2. Share of SMEs in the Malaysian Economy Expanded Further in 2019, SME Corp, 2019
Wildcard
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Every voice matters. Every idea counts.
The Wildcard is a blank canvas dedicated to new explorations of creativity and explorations. If you have idea in mind that goes beyond the challenge areas identified, make use of this blank canvas to share with us your unique perspective on a different social challenge and potential solutions that would be able to make a positive impact in addressing the pain points of the community.
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