Historique

Dear Sir / Madam:

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is looking for an individual to perform the work described in the corresponding TORs.

• Post Title: National Consultant to develop the Training Curriculum, Guidelines, and Training Material of Vocational Training for Sex Workers in Thailand
• Country of Assignment: Thailand (Home-based, No Travel is expected)
• Duration of Assignment: 19 April – 31 May 2021 (15 working days) 

Proposal should be submitted no later than 2 April 2021

If you are interested in this assignment, please provide the following documents;  

• a) Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability with financial proposal in Thai Baht using the template provided by UNDP.
• b) P11, Indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• c) Technical Proposal/ Port Folio – Brief description of the systematic process to create positive training courses. (maximum of 2 pages).
• d) A copy of the highest educational certificate.  
• e) Your confirmation that you have read, understood and hereby accept UNDP’s General Conditions of Contract for the Services of the Individual Contractors.  
• f) Completed and signed Statement of Good Health (prior to signing of the contract).
• g) Copy of Medical Insurance Certificate (prior to signing of the contract).  

Yours sincerely,

Procurement Unit

 

1) GENERAL BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 crisis poses substantial and various threats to individuals and the health system in Thailand.  The COVID-19 crisis also threatens quality of life, especially of the most marginalized communities in terms of access to health care. In Thailand, sex workers form one of the communities who has been seriously affected by the pandemic. 

Sex workers were already facing multiple forms of discrimination, policing, and punishment in their daily lives before the outbreak of COVID-19. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, globally, sex workers report increased discrimination, harassment, and punitive crackdowns resulting in violence, the raiding of their homes, compulsory COVID-19 testing, arrests, and threatened deportation of migrant sex workers.   Many sex workers have suffered compromised health due to poverty, criminalization of their profession, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and stigma. Also, in Thailand, the coronavirus outbreak has hit them hard. Since their work is criminalized in Thailand, sex workers were not included in some of the social protection measures put in place to mitigate the effects of COVID-19–such as the cash handout provided by the government to workers in the informal sector. Criminalization of sex work has also resulted in structural problems of harassment by law enforcement agencies with a combination of compliance and fear.  During the crisis, they are left behind. Many sex workers lack access to information about COVID-19 prevention and supplies as the criminalization of sex work and high levels of stigma hinder sex workers from participating in some community-level health information initiatives. Additionally, migrant sex workers (both regular and irregular) face further challenges in accessing information and essential services, as well as the risk of arrest and deportation due to their lack of legal documents.

Context
After the first COVID-19 case in Thailand was confirmed on 13 January 2020, the Government of Thailand was prompted to launch social and economic measures to mitigate the effects on the general population. This led to the government putting in place lockdown measures to counter the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, sex workers were one of the vulnerable groups who were unable to access state support. Since commercial sex is illegal in Thailand, sex workers are excluded from many of the schemes in the Social Security System and are therefore largely left to fend for themselves. As an example, in a survey conducted by UNAIDS in April and May 2020, 72% of the respondents reported that they were not eligible to apply for government assistance due to the illegal status of their occupation. Many of them were breadwinners of their families and the lockdown put them in a situation where they were not able to make ends meet. Sex workers who are migrants or stateless (predominantly from Thailand’s ethnic minority groups) are formally undocumented; therefore, they lack access to government support and risk being arrested because of their illegal status in the country.   The pandemic has heavily disrupted the country's economy, of which tourism is a significant sector. The Royal Thai government ordered the closure of entertainment venues in the country in March, which has affected an estimate of145,000 sex workers living in Thailand . The outbreak has had a severe socioeconomic impact on sex workers' lives, further exacerbated by the lack of social protection measures.

Sex workers in Thailand face a serious loss of income and have become increasingly vulnerable due to the restrictive measures put in place to respond to the coronavirus pandemic according to the findings from the community-repaid assessment with support from the UNAIDS. These findings fed into the United Nations country team's socio-economic impact assessment and informed the development of recommendations for immediate actions to support the sex workers' access to health and quality of life during COVID-19. 

In respond to this circumstance, UNDP recently supported two studies to conduct training needs assessment of the male, female, and LGBTI sex workers who are Thai citizens, stateless people, and non-Thai (migrants).  The studies identified key barriers for sex workers to access training, apart from stigma and discrimination.  It also identified main areas that the Thai government should occupy to enable the economic empowerment of sex workers, including but not limited to vocational and skills training. This will help them to participate in the labor market that includes career coaching or job-matching, etc.

Devoirs et responsabilités

2) OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Based on the findings and recommendations from the UNDP studies on “Training Needs Assessment and Mapping of Training for Sex Workers in Thailand” and “Need Assessment on Short Skills Training Courses for Sex Workers”, the main objective of this assignment is to develop three vocational training curriculums identified by the Division of Protection and Occupation Development of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.   Through the curriculum for three selected vocational training courses, UNDP Thailand aims to advocate and provide technical support to the government to remove the human rights-related barriers on the training courses offered to the sex workers to promote them economic empowerment. These curriculums will be developed according to the no discrimination principle and the no discrimination principle will be adapted to promote the well-being of sex workers. It is expected that the vocational and skills training courses will enable the economic empowerment of sex workers through income-generating participation in the labor market.

3) SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will develop three vocational training curriculums identified by the Division of Protection and Occupation Development of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security based on the mapping exercise from the UNDP studies on “Training Needs Assessment and Mapping of Training for Sex Workers in Thailand” and “Need Assessment on Short Skills Training Courses for Sex Workers”.

Theses training curriculums, training guidelines and materials will be developed as reference and to be used by the Division of Protection and Occupation Development of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security for delivering the training to the target group. 

This assignment will contribute to policy recommendations and the identification of technical support that UNDP Thailand will provide to the government on the human rights dimension on enabling the economic empowerment of the sex workers through the vocational and skills training.

A UN Common Understanding on Human-Rights Based Approach (HBRA) for reviewing the existing training courses, curriculum and materials as well as conducting the key informant interview (KII) or focus group discussion (FGD) will be applied.

The consultant will utilize the findings from UNDP studies on “Training Needs Assessment and Mapping of Training for Sex Workers in Thailand” and “Need Assessment on Short Skills Training Courses for Sex Workers”.

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

Intellectual Property
All information collected for the advocacy report pertaining to the assignments as well as outputs produced under this Contract shall remain the property of the UNDP who shall have exclusive rights over their use. The products shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever format without written permission of UNDP in line with the national and International Copyright Laws applicable.

4) DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT, DUTY STATION AND EXPECTED PLACES OF TRAVEL

Duration
Up to a maximum of 15 working days.  The expected starting date is 19 April 2021, and the expecting ending date is 31 May 2021.

Duty Station
The assignment will be home-based with no travel. 

Compétences

Language

• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Fluency in written and spoken Thai.

Qualifications et expériences requises

7) DEGREE OF EXPERTISE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

• At least Bachelor’s degree in political science, gender studies, international relations, human resource development, social science or related field. Master’s degree in similar fields is preferable.

Work Experience:

• At least 5 years of prior work experience in the field of training, especially vocational training context

• Proven experience in designing and developing training packages for at-risk group or similar tasks.

• Proven experience in developing manual, training modules/curriculum, training documents or similar publications on vocational training.

• Relevant regional and national experience will be added advantage.

• Proven experience in collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative. 

• Expertise in gender and human rights-based approaches in data collection and data analysis.  

• Preferably prior experience in the area of vocational - education or skill development or vocational training.

• Good communication skills and ability to communicate with various stakeholders and to express concisely and clearly ideas and concepts. 

• Experience working with major international organizations or the United Nations is desirable.

Language

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Fluency in written and spoken Thai.

Please indicate any special payment terms for the contract.

x Lumpsum                          

? Daily

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, anticipated travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s home base) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability with financial proposal in Thai Baht using the template provided by UNDP.
2. P11, Indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
3. Technical Proposal/ Port Folio – Brief description of the systematic process to create positive training courses. (maximum of 2 pages).
4. A copy of the highest educational certificate. 
5. Your confirmation that you have read, understood and hereby accept UNDP’s General Conditions of Contract for the Services of the Individual Contractors. 
6. Completed and signed Statement of Good Health (prior to signing of the contract).
7. Copy of Medical Insurance Certificate (prior to signing of the contract). 

EVALUATION OF CANDIDATES:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative Analysis: The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method.  When using the weighted scoring method, 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 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%)

• Criteria 1: Relevance of Education – Max 5 points
• Criteria 2: Relevance of work experience – Max 30 Points
• Criteria 3: Relevance of experience in area of specialization – Max 25 Points
• Criteria 4: Technical Proposal/ Port Folio - Max 10 Points

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

Financial Evaluation (30%)

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