Background

Background

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone.

As part of the UN system, UNDP offers immediate assistance to the national COVID-19 response, to prepare for, respond to, and recover from this pandemic, ensuring no one is left behind while safeguarding the progress achieved towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

With support from the Japanese Government, UNDP has been implementing a project “Strengthening socio-economic recovery, human security and resilience in Thailand in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak ensuring the Leave No One Behind and Safeguard progress made towards the SDGs”.  The overall objective is to promote social and economic recovery and strengthen the community resilience of the Thai people – with a particular focus on the vulnerable and at-risk group – ensure empowerment at both sub-national and national level, and in view of promoting SDG localization efforts. 

Situation

Air pollution leads people to be exposed to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and respiratory infections. Industry, transportation, coal power plants, and household solid fuel usage are major contributors to air pollution. Air pollution continues to rise at an alarming rate and affects economies and people’s quality of life. Particulate matter (PM) air pollution, predominantly the result of fossil fuel combustion, is recognized as the most deadly form of air pollution globally. The AQLI demonstrates that averaged across all women, men, and children globally, particulate air pollution cuts global life expectancy short by nearly two years relative to if particulate concentrations everywhere were at the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO). This life expectancy loss makes particulate pollution more devastating than communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioral killers like cigarette smoking, and even war. Some areas of the world are impacted more than others. For example, in the United States, there is less pollution, life expectancy is cut short by just 0.1 years relative to the WHO guideline. In China and India, where there are much greater pollution levels, bringing particulate concentrations down to the WHO guideline would increase average life expectancy by 2.3 and 5.2 years, respectively.  

According to the World Health Organization's guidelines,  a person's average annual PM2.5 exposure should not exceed, on average, ten micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and that exposure during any 24 hours should not exceed 25 mg/m³).  However, Thailand capped the PM2.5 threshold at 50 mg/m³ per day and 25 mg/m³ per annual average. The country's average concentration of PM2.5 from 2011-2018 was 24 mg/m³, with Bangkok and surrounding areas closer to 30 mg/m³.  Contributors to poor air quality in Thailand include power generation from coal, manufacturing, refining, mining industries, vehicle emissions, and waste burning.  Seasonal variations exist, with a high air pollution level in the dry season (January to April).  The World Health Organization estimates seven million people die every year due to air pollution, while non-fatal effects of over-exposure to PM2.5 particles include irregular heartbeat, aggravated asthma, and decreased lung function. Available data indicates that Bangkok has a consistently high level of air pollution. The pollution index by country 2020 mid-year indicated that Thailand ranks the world's twenty-seventh most polluted globally and ranks the fifteenth in Asia. 

Since the onset of the pandemic of COVID-19, several studies revealed the interrelation of long-term exposure to air pollution increase the risk and the impact on the spreading of the disease. The director of the Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment at Harvard University mentioned that people living in a more polluted place over time are more likely to die from coronavirus. In one study, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that higher levels of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, are associated with higher death rates from Covid-19.  The areas with high air pollution levels are associated with the increased risk of severe illness and death of several respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. Therefore, people need to understand the impact of air pollution on their health, not limited to the respiratory system, and the connection of air problems with COVID-19 and actions to mitigate risks and solve the problems.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective

This assignment's main objective is to develop a communication strategy for promoting an evidence-based advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the people living in Thailand regarding air pollution impact on their lives and actions to solve the problem.

Scope of Work

The consultant will utilize the existing findings from UNEP and ESCAP’s studies on air quality management and situation review for Thailand. Also, the consultant will follow the UNEP advisory material on “Building a Clean Air Campaign: Lesson from BreatheLife”.  The communication strategy will define the followings: -       

   1. Why we communicate

   2. Communication goals

   3. Developing key messages

   4. Materials & media

   5. Roles & responsibilities

   6. Written communication plan

Key responsibilities:-

• Gathering information on Thailand’s air pollution situation, impacts, air quality management mechanism 
• Develop a communication goal, Theory of Change (participant/target group, action, outcome, impact)
• Develop a communication key messages of each target groups (how to reach each target groups)
• Define types of communication material and media to be developed further
• Define role and responsibilities (who is responsible for which communications?)
• Write a communication plan and make a presentation in English

The consultant will utilize her/his own equipment to complete the assignment.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

deliverables of this assignment are expected as follows:              

Institutional Arrangement

Under the overall guidance of the Project Manager of “Strengthening Socio-Economic Recovery, Human Security and Resilience in Thailand in the Context of the COVID-19 outbreak ensuring to Leave No One Behind and Safeguard Progress made towards the SDGs” and the Programme Analyst  – Inclusive Green Growth for Sustainable Development (IGSD) of UNDP Thailand, the consultant will report directly to and work closely with the Project Manager as assigned.

Duration of the Work

The duration of the assignment is 21 December 2020 to 8 February 2021 with a maximum of 20 working days.

Duty Station 

Home-based with no travel.

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

• At least bachelor’s degree in environment, public health, communication, and journalist or in similar fields.

?Experience?

• Minimum of 5 years of professional research experience in the area of environmental policy development, and its relation to air pollution
• Minimum of 5 years of professional in advocacy campaign and communication strategy development
• Experience working with major international organizations or the United Nations is desirable

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contract will be based on Lump Sum

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum. 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.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) *and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

• Only those applications which are responsive, compliant and accept in general condition will be evaluated;
• The financial proposal shall specify a lump sum fee;

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevance of education – Max 10 points
• Criteria 2: Relevance of work experience – Max 30 points
• Criteria 3: Experience in conducting research – Max 25 points
• Criteria 4: Fluency in written and spoken English – Max 5 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of technical evaluation) would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Cover letter detailing how the Candidate’s expertise and qualifications corresponds to the requirements of the assignment
• Technical Proposal/ Port Folio that demonstrates the consultant’s understanding of the context and situation in which the assignment will take place and the proposed strategy to achieve the specific objectives of the assignment.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: 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 n the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

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

To download forms and related documents, please follow the link below:

https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73474