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. As the governments of Asia and the Pacific and the UN look towards implementation of the SDGs, it is increasingly being realized that one of the greatest challenges facing policymakers in the region is how to engage the region’s large youth population in their own governance and development. Youth voices and participation were an important part of the consultations for the Post-2015 development framework, with national dialogues undertaken and the online “MY World” global survey eliciting a huge response from youth aged 16 to 30.

The UNDP believes that youth can make a real and positive difference by engaging with challenges head on through innovation, exploring dynamic approaches to mobilizing their peers and communities and creating adaptive solutions. An emphasis on promoting innovative solutions can help ensure that scarce resources are leveraged for maximum impact and engagement.

Since 2012, UNDP has been investing in exploring innovation by providing seed-funding to initiatives with the belief that innovation happens through practical explorations of new ways to address old problems. “Innovation” has tended to be understood by lay people as focusing primarily on tech solutions, but it is important to recognize that innovation can occur in multiple ways using multiple media. Innovation encompasses the creation of new ideas and processes to better harness talent and the development of new understandings of old problems or solutions.

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 UNDP 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 Thailand, UNDP has already successfully run two social innovation challenges, one on the theme of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and one on the theme of Anti-Corruption. The DRR campaign recently concluded with 4 innovations being awarded prizes, and all 4 currently in discussions with private investors for scaling up the innovations. The Anti-Corruption campaign has also been concluded, with 3 innovations potentially being scaled up.

Based on the experiences of these past innovation challenges, UNDP in Thailand is seeking to design and deliver a social innovation service model that empowers and engages youth to internalize innovation, co-design and develop the next generation of services by prototyping new ideas and solutions that address national priorities and can be scaled by the Government or Private Sector Partners. It will support youth together with expert partners to:

• Reframe policy issues and redesign programing by identifying key insights into the needs of service users (using methods such as ethnographic research, human-centered-design, behavioral science and social innovation camps);
• Connect and co-design with leading thinkers, citizens, think tanks, private sector and organizations on the cutting edge of progress and development in key policy issues (using horizon scanning, crowdsourcing, online collaboration, incubators, accelerators and challenge prizes);
• De-risk investment to enhance deliverability of policies by running rapid prototypes, parallel field tests and experiments;
• Provide funding and investment platform to scale successful innovations both nationally and regionally.

The resulting multi-stakeholder innovation facility, the Thailand Social Innovation Platform (TSIP), will bring prominent public and private sector actors together to support youth social innovation through each stage of the innovation process.

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;

• Manage APYE Program in Thailand
• Coordinate and collaboratively work with TSIP team and partners to design and implement other youth programs in Thailand (National Dialogue and Social Innovation Challenge)
• Manage the alliance and partnership programs and relationships
• Support Thailand Social Innovation Platform (TSIP) day-to-day operations and project implementation
• Support events organizing including conferences, board meetings, seminars for TSIP, lectures and innovation challenge related activities, and act as a contact point for experts/speakers and participants;
• Act as a contact point to co-ordinate with the internal team to support challenges and platform
• Develop and Manage the TSIP online community to ensure that all key partners actively engage.
• Support implementation of Youth Co:Lab communications plan, including the Youth Co:Lab YouTube channel, social media and communications for events. At the country level, minimum five country offices will be provided with communication support for their youth Co:Lab national dialogues and follow ups.
• Produce communications materials, including videos and graphic design online and on the ground, e.g. for our YouTube channel, including human interest stories, videos and other creative ways of convening the social entrepreneurship journey.
• Support communication related activities of other regional youth initiatives (Case 4 Space, 2030 Youth Force etc.) and provide support to capacity building activities.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the followings

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant 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

Bangkok-based with possible domestic travel. 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, international relation, Journalism, communications 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;
• Experience in Social Innovation/Youth empowerment/Social development;
• Experience in innovation programmes or related work for a UN agency, a donor organization, or international NGO
• 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.

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:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• 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%

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

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

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

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• 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;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• 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_ International Consultant – Youth Engagement and Partnership Management

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=45997