Background

The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulate the United Nations’ universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Important development trends like climate change, unsustainable production and consumption, and rising inequalities pose significant challenges on our path to achieve the SDGs. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) embraces the complexity of development and commits the organization to helping countries find faster, more durable solutions to achieve the 2030 Agenda. As part of this commitment, the UNDP Accelerator Labs Network is established to build the fastest and largest learning network to accelerate learning on sustainable development. Together with our multisectoral partners, the Labs strive to unleash the power of local innovations and collective intelligence to address today’s complex development challenges.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism sector had been one of the key drivers of the Thai economy. In 2019, Thailand received nearly 40 million foreign tourists. The sector generated a revenue of approximately 2 trillion Baht which accounted for 11% of the country’s GPD. While the pandemic has caused major setbacks to the overall economy, tourism industry undoubtedly is among the sectors that are affected the most. The prolonged lockdowns and quarantine measures have led to both very low number of international tourist arrivals and limited domestic tourists. As the situation improved, challenges also lie in the changing behaviours of tourists which will inevitably alter the landscape of tourism businesses. Increased concern on health and hygiene drives the sector towards ‘trusted tourism’ where tourists prefer to travel in smaller groups and in safe settings.

The disruption provides an opportunity for Thailand to reimagine and reposition its tourism industry to move forward on a more sustainable and resilient path. As part of the 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan which outlines the goals and implementation targets to transform the country, the Government of Thailand sets out to develop the country as a destination for high-value and sustainable tourism. The strategy strives to move the industry away from mass tourism which sometimes yields negative impacts on social and environmental sustainability. Under the new framework, tourism is to be the vehicle for the attainment of the SDGs and a driver of the Bio-Circular-Green Economy (BCG).

Alongside large-scale tourism businesses, community-based tourism also plays in important role in driving the sustainable tourism agenda. It allows local people to benefit fully from economic benefits of tourism and places key decisions in their hands. With a long-term view, local communities are urged to balance economic growth and socio-culture and environment impacts caused by tourism activities. In many cases, community-based tourism also applies the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy of King Rama IV to foster resilience and sustainable growth.

Recognizing the role of community-based tourism in Thailand’s tourism industry, UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand will engage will support its recovery and promotion by engaging with relevant stakeholders to develop toolkits for sustainable community-based tourism in the COVID-19 era. The Lab will apply a wide range of innovative methodologies such as sensemaking, systems thinking, design thinking, and co-creation approaches to identify and consolidate good practices for community-based tourism. The Lab has determined two touristic sites to conduct the exercises and gain insights for the guidelines and toolkits development: Sakon Nakhon province and Yala province. The working process will be two-fold. Firstly, the Lab will conduct sensemaking exercises to gain insights on community-based tourism in the COVID-19 era, identify challenges and opportunities, then co-create and experiment innovative solutions. Based on the insights, the Lab will develop toolkits for the development of community-based tourism which can be disseminated to interested communities in Thailand.

           UNDP is seeking for a national community-based tourism consultant with an extensive experience on community-based tourism development and management to lead the abovementioned exercises in the two target areas and develop comprehensive toolkits to community-based tourism development in Thailand.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

Overall responsibilities:

• Develop a detailed work plan for the completion of the work along the lines of the UNDP Accelerator Lab methodology such as sensemaking, system thinking, design thinking, co-creation, experimentation, among others;
• Undertake desk research on good practices related to sustainable community-based tourism;
• Map out stakeholders related to community-based tourism development;
• Identify and act as a focal point for coordination with relevant stakeholders in the two target locations, including local authorities, private sector and social enterprise, and local communities to invite their engagement;
• Plan and facilitate sensemaking workshops on community-based tourism with the two target communities together with UNDP Accelerator Lab;
• Document and analyze the insights to identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable community-based tourism in COVID-19 era;
• Design and facilitate the co-creation and experimentation process to find innovative approach to sustainable community-based tourism development in COVID-19 era;
• Lead the collation of insights from all the processes and synthesize good practices on sustainable community-based tourism development;
• Develop toolkits for sustainable community-based tourism development which can be disseminated to other interested communities in Thailand; and

• Report to UNDP Accelerator Lab as needed.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

Institutional Arrangement:

The Consultant will be engaged on a short-term basis 60 working days (15 February – 31 August 2022) under the Individual Contract arrangement. The work will be delivered under the direct supervision of the Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand.

Duration of the Work:

15 February – 31 August 2022, with maximum 60 working days.

Duty Station:

Home-based with possible travel to Sakon Nakhon and Yala province, Thailand.

Competencies

Core 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;
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Expertise in community engagement process
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills and ability to engage people of diverse backgrounds
• Strong local networks in the community-based tourism ecosystem
• Solid knowledge of the SDGs
• Strong knowledge of social innovations and bottom-up participatory development approach
• Creativity
• Excellent analytical skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including ability to produce comprehensive knowledge products such as guidelines and toolkits

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications: 

Academic Qualifications:

• Minimum of Master’s degree in tourism development, business development, social sciences, economics, or related field

Years of experience:

• Minimum 5 years of professional experiences in community-based tourism development and sustainability of tourism
• Experience in working closely with local communities to develop community-based tourism in at least 10 communities in all regions of Thailand, preferably including Sakon Nakhon and Yala
• Minimum 3 year of experience in sustainable tourism business development 
• Minimum 1 year of experience in sustainable tourism policy
• Demonstrated understanding of political, legal and institutional context and priorities for tourism development in Thailand
• Proven experience in working diverse stakeholders in the tourism sector, including the government, private sector, social enterprise, academia, and local communities
• Strong knowledge on social innovations and bottom-up participatory development approach
• Experiences in working with international organizations, particularly UNDP, would be an advantage

Language:

• Thai and English (technical proficiency)

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal on professional fee based on Lump Sum amount. The total      amount quoted shall be include all costs components to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, included travel cost. The cost should include professional fee 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.:

Payment terms:

• First payment - 30% of total contract amount upon the completion of the first deliverable
• Second payment - 30% of total contract amount upon the completion of the second deliverable
• Third payment - 40% of total contract amount upon the completion of the third deliverable

Due to uncertainty given the COVID-19 situation, UNDP will assess the possibility of travels to targeted communities. If the travels are possible, 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. However, 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.

Both international and domestic travel costs shall be paid at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

The Individual Consultant 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 proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

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.

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:

• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) professional references;
• Portfolio including at least 10 community-based tourism projects previously engaged
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal using the template provided by UNDP.  Note: National consultants must quote prices in Thai Baht, inclusive of consultant fee and all costs related to the operation.

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

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_Community-based Tourism Consultant

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=87091