Background

In September 2015, the world’s leaders signed off on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a global agreement identifying the world’s policy priorities for the next 15 years.

Since 2012, UNDP has been a driving force for innovation in the development arena. UNDP recognizes that if we shall ever achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in this increasingly complex world where development challenges are continuously emerging and changing, there is an urgent need to move away from business as usual and respond with agile and flexible solutions.

Thailand has a rapidly growing innovation landscape, with government entities, private sector firms and non-profit organizations all working to promote innovation. Thailand presents fertile terrain for leading innovation practices in the Asia-Pacific region. As Thailand has joined the ranks of middle-income countries, with high levels of youth reaching third level education, innovation can lead the way to address ongoing social challenges and enhance effective civic engagement. For Thailand Social Innovation Platform in Thailand, innovation begins with a critical rethink of how we approach development challenges and identifying solutions outside of traditional project cycles, recognizing innovation as an intrinsic design principle to program development.

In addition to the Thailand Social Innovation Platform, there are therefore several different organizations in Thailand that recognize the immense value of innovative solutions to societal and economic issues, and are working to promote innovation. However, much of the work surrounding social innovation in Thailand remains ad hoc and uncoordinated, lacking a central organizing entity that can successfully engage and unify the disparate innovation initiatives taking place in Thailand. We believe it is important to follow a system-wide approach to innovation rather than simply innovation in a product. For issues with a high level of complexity and dynamism, our value add is therefore strengthening the wider social innovation ecosystem by connecting all the social entrepreneurs in Thailand.

With all this in mind, this project aims to establish a digital platform to engage, inspire and connect actors from different sectors within the area of social innovation to seek and make experiments with innovative approaches to society’s problems and address how they are supporting the achievement of the SDGs. Thailand Social Innovation Platform wants to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem of Thailand by bringing together unlikely bedfellows and innovators that would not otherwise meet, avoid poor coordination and duplication of efforts with other actors in the field of social innovation causing delays in implementing activities and confusion amongst beneficiaries.

This digital platform will collate all on-going innovative projects and solutions to societal issues in Thailand, which will be connected to how they are addressing relevant SDGs.

We want to present innovative projects, products, services and solutions from startups, businesses, entrepreneurs, government offices, civil sector organizations etc. in the field of social innovation and link these projects to the SDGs.

In order to better be able to connect the right social innovators, we encourage project owners to write what they are seeking in order to better be able to scale up including funding, partnerships, inspiration or staff.

We want all the social innovators in Thailand to be part of this so that it becomes a co-creation process. Everyone shall be able to submit either their own projects and solutions or some other projects they have heard of to the platform.

In addition to this, the digital platform will collate information regarding job postings within the field of social innovation in Thailand as well as asking anyone involved in the social innovation ecosystem of Thailand to address an issue in the field of social innovation in Thailand and write a blog about it. This will be a free place for influential social innovators to express their opinions and open up for a discussion on the topic.

With this website, we seek to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem in Thailand in order to support the achievement of the SDGs. This searchable platform will be used to connect all the players in the social innovation ecosystem of Thailand.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective and Scope of Work

Under the guidance of the Social Innovation Facility Manager and in close collaboration with project team and Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy (DGSA) unit, the consultant is expected to perform the following tasks and duties;

• Coordinate with key partners and key stakeholders to achieve the purpose of each initiative;
• Key contact person to communicate internally within the team;
• Support in management of Thailand Social Innovation Platform’s projects along with Social Innovation Platform Manager and supporting team;
• Write project reports to be archived for deliverables;
• Prepare presentations and documents for specific projects as required;
• Manage Thailand Social Innovation Platform’s social media pages with team and consultant;
• Support setting up Thailand Social Innovation digital platform;
• Support with expert knowledge and advocacy work on the SDGs and the role of social innovation in supporting the achievement of the SDGs in Thailand;
• Support in developing partnership communication and marketing activities strategy and collaborating with the partners of Thailand Social Innovation Platform;
• Support Thailand Social Innovation Platform in promoting and organizing social innovation challenges and other bigger activities

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the followings:

Institutional Arrangement

Social Innovation Platform Project Coordinator will work under The Social Innovation Facility Manager with the supervision of the Team Leader/Programme Specialist of Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy (DGSA), and with Thailand Social Innovation Platform staff and partners, and the UNDP Thailand Country Office team in completing the listed scope of work

Duration of the Assignment

1 June 2018 – 15 January 2019 (maximum up to 152 days worked)

Duty Station

A consultant may be required to travel to provinces in Thailand or attend the events relevant to the project within Thailand. Travels will be authorized by Programme Specialist/Team Leader, Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy when required. Travel expenses (ticket, living allowance and local transport) shall be agreed prior travel and reimbursed after trips completed.

Competencies

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.

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

• At least Bachelor Degree in social sciences, social innovation, communications, design and art or other relevant disciplines with a demonstrated interest in using social media and social innovation for social change an asset.

II. Experience:

• At least 1-2 years of experience in communication is preferred;
• Familiarity with Social Innovation/Youth empowerment/Social development;
• Experience and knowledge of the Social development;
• Must be able to work collaboratively in a multi-cultural team;
• Commitment to respecting deadlines and the delivery of outputs within the agreed time-frame;
• Familiarity with the innovation/social innovation/social enterprise/social impact investment landscape in Thailand is desired.
• Experience in innovation programmes or related work for a UN agency, a donor organization, or international NGO

III. Language:

• Excellent command of English, both spoken and written

IV. Competencies:

Functional Competencies:

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modelling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on 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 IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC 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:

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC 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 DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation Criteria

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals

Interested individuals must submit the following documents /information to demonstrate their qualification, experience and suitability to undertake the assignment. All supporting documents (a-d) must be part of the detailed CV and uploaded as one document

a) Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;

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

c) Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;

d) Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price supported by a breakdown of costs (in Thai Baht), as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified

Annexes

Annex I - TOR_ National Consultant – Social Innovation Platform Project Coordinator and Communication

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

All documents can be downloaded at :http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=45466