Plastic use is expected to reach unprecedented levels in the coming decades, doubling within 15 years and more than quadruple by 2050. Moreover, the petrochemical industry’s demand for oil is expected to accelerate and reach over half of global oil consumption growth by 2040. 80 percent of plastic found in the ocean originates from land-based sources, and 8 million tons of plastic enter the sea every year. Plastic waste poses high risks to aquatic life, with serious consequences for the ocean ecosystem and the sustainability of fisheries.

Globally, only 14% of plastic is recycled or ‘decycled,’ as plastics are mostly transformed in low-value materials a few times before eventually being discarded in landfills or the environment. Less than 2% of used plastics are actually recycled in a closed circuit, that is to say, recovered to produce a usable material like new plastic and indistinguishable from it.

Tackling plastic pollution entails developing strategies for a range of sectors: packaging and construction, but also textiles and consumer products. Although the current awareness campaigns have mostly shed light on the over-use of single-use plastic by the food and beverage industries, this is only the tip of the iceberg and less commonly identified sectors deserve equal attention.

Four ASEAN member countries (Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines) are responsible, with China, for 60 percent of the plastic discharged into the ocean every year (Ocean Conservancy, 2015). These countries are indeed large plastic producers and importers, but they also possess limited waste management systems, leading to leakage of plastics into the environment. Constraints to effective implementation of such waste systems include rapid urbanisation, population growth, and increase in per capita income leading to increased consumption; alongside lack of environmental awareness. However, the topic of plastic pollution is gaining momentum, and ASEAN member countries endorsed in June 2019, the Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in the ASEAN region.

Plastic pollution can only be reduced by a system-level shift towards a circular economy, including both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Consequently, there is a need to identify and leverage existing solutions aimed at preventing the generation of plastic waste and improving local waste management systems.

The project Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge (EPPIC) seeks to reduce plastic pollution in coastal areas of Viet Nam and Thailand in 2020, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines in 2021, contributing to the achievement of SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption). EPPIC will bring together citizens, local governments, and the private sector to collaborate in establishing effective and innovative solutions. The EPPIC competition is also the opportunity to drive change by raising awareness, collecting lessons learned and trying new approaches to address localised plastic issues.  It intends to deliver two outcomes:

• Output 1: A portfolio of innovative solutions to combat ocean plastic waste pollution is selected and designed
• Output 2: Diffusion and replication strategies are designed and delivered - From ideas to impact

Scope of Work:

The Consultant is to support the implementation of the incubation component of EPPIC. The scope includes but not limited to the following tasks:

• Design the incubation programme for EPPIC. The consultant is expected to work together with one EPPIC’s winner, Thailand team and contribute inputs to the incubation programme design, including both content (including but not limited to detail for each activity; impact measurement framework; and framework for reporting on development process) and workplan (including but not limited timeline; key milestones; budget; and human resources involved).

• Deliver the incubation programme for one EPPIC’s winner team that is based in Bangkok, Thailand.

• Together with the UNDP team, deliver and coordinate the content of the Demo Day in Samui at the end of incubation (tentatively February 2022) including but not limited to:
  • Train the teams for pitching.
  • Design detailed schedule of the Demo day.
  • Support creating judging criteria & format.
  • Facilitate the flow of the Demo day.

• Identify investors & scale-up partners for the team
  • Network with different potential investors & scale-up partners for the team
  • Arrange and facilitate meetings and connection events between the team and relevant investors and partners (including the incubation team’s travel to the meeting places if necessary).
  • Support the winner team in the negotiation process for investment & partnership deals.

• Support with other administrative tasks in the incubation programme
  • Arrange meetings between the incubatee and relevant partners.
  • Arrange monthly meetings between the incubator, and UNDP team to report on the development process of the team.
  • If necessary, support with the communication campaign of the incubation period.

• Identify, recruit and manage mentors and case manager for the team.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

Institutional Arrangement:

The Consultant will work under supervision of the Project Manager of the UNDP Thailand and in close consultation and collaboration with UNDP Vietnam and with relevant team members of UNDP Thailand.

UNDP Thailand will review the progress and quality of assignment upon outputs prior to issuance the payment. Review/approval time required to review/ approve outputs prior to authorizing payments is 7 – 10 days.

Duration of the Work:

1 October 2021 – 31 March 2022, maximum 30 working days

If there is any unseen delay in the start-up process, the timeline of the deliverables will be negotiated with the Contractor.

Duty Station:

Home-based with travel to Koh Samui, Surat Thani (planned for 1 trip for 3 days 2 nights) if the COVID situation allows.

The duty proposed travel cost will not include in the percentage of payment per deliverable. The proposed travel cost will be paid upon the actual travel occurred on the agreed number of days traveled, and agreed upon the respective business unit.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Qualifications:

• Minimum Master’s degree in business management, political sciences, public administration, international business, communication, social sciences, liberal arts, design and art or other relevant disciplines with a demonstrated interest in using social media and social innovation for social change;
• At least 4 years with capacity building measures, social innovation, youth empowerment, social development, social enterprise and/or social impact investment experiences;
• At least 4 years of experience in facilitating social innovation related workshops and capacity building programmes;
• Previous experience working with UNDP and/or other UN agencies is an advantage; and
• Fluency in Thai and English is required.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on the lump sum amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the service provider´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the service provider in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

The duty proposed travel cost will not include in the percentage of payment per deliverable. The proposed travel cost will be paid upon the actual travel occurred on the agreed number of days traveled, and agreed upon the respective business unit.

UNDP will not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved

travel agent. The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP Living Allowance rates.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Service providers will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative Analysis: The service providers will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the service provider whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of set of weighted combine technical evaluation of desk review and interview (70%), and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical criteria for evaluation (70% - Score 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Educational background - Max 10 points
• Criteria 2: Relevant experience in capacity building measures, social innovation, youth empowerment, social development, social enterprise and/or social impact investment - Max 25 points
• Criteria 3: At least 4 years of experience in facilitating social innovation related workshops and capacity building programme - Max 25 points
• Criteria 4: Proposed methodology and workplan - Max 40 points

Only Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Evaluation (30%)

Financial proposals from all technically qualified service providers will be scored out 30 marks based on the formula provided below. The maximum marks (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal.

All other proposals will receive points according to the following formula:

• p = y (µ/z). Where:
• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals.

Interested candidate must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualification, experience and suitability to undertake the assignment. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document:

a) P11/Personal CV, indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details email and telephone number of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

b) Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal in Thai baht indicating daily professional fee for the duration of assignment, using the template provided by UNDP.

c) Proposed methodology and workplan of the incubation program for EPPIC

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ EPPIC Incubation Accelerator Program
Annex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_Consultants
Annex III - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal

All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=82983