Antecedentes

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,  UNDP aims 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 as well as to seek and make experiments with innovative approaches to society’s problems and address how they are supporting the achievement of the SDGs.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Objective of the Assignment & Scope of work:

Social Enterprise and Social Impact Investment Landscape in Thailand

The social enterprise (SE) / impact venture ecosystem in Thailand is still in its nascent stage and considerable effort is still needed to grow both the demand (SE) and supply (investors) of social impact investment and to create tools or platforms to connect them with each other.

In recent years, UNDP has become an active player in the SE ecosystem and had put forward several initiatives such as the Thailand Social Innovation Platform (TSIP) and Youth Co:Lab to drive social innovation and social entrepreneurship landscape. The relationship and traction built have laid a solid foundation on which UNDP can develop further to help scaling social impact investment in the country. Therefore, UNDP is looking for an expert to serve as a corporate focal point and interface in expanding UNDP engagement with the private sector in the context of the Agenda 2030, with a focus on – but not necessarily limited to – the advancement of the private sector network for SDG financing and impact investment. The expert will also work towards fostering the collaboration among ecosystem builders, intermediaries, and investors in order to deliver collective impact strategically and contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs in Thailand.

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provide support to the Project Manager focusing on project implementation according to project strategies;
• Assisting the creation of strategic partnerships and support;
• Ensuring facilitation of knowledge building and management.

1. Provide support Senior Management of UNDP Thailand focusing on project implementation according to project strategies;

• Understand the needs of SEs and Impact investor as well as intermediaries in each region
• Develop common social impact assessment standards and impact reporting standards linked to SDGs and SDGs impact tools
• Communicate and Promote the standards to both SEs and investors through the network or platforms
• Develop new products and services base on needs or scale up or replicate existing investment products such as Taejai, ChangeVentures Capital, and ESG funds to create investment market opportunity for SEs in Thailand
• Match SEs to investors and aggregate investors community to drive social impact investment area and scaling impact of SEs’ outcomes.
• Develop accelerator programs and customised investment readiness services, especially in thematic clusters (crafts, agriculture, technology, sustainable tourism, etc.)

2. Assisting the creation of strategic partnerships and support;

• Establish a Thailand social investment consortium led by UNDP to convene actors from all sectors by working closely with key players such as ChangeFusion, National Innovation Agency (NIA), Stock Exchange of Thailand, and Sal Forest.
• Influence private sector to support existing SEs or the creation of new SEs through SE4SDG Lab/Fund, as a supporting medium for large/listed companies to spin-off SEs as their CSR/sustainability strategy.
• Create incentive tools/products to incentivize and recognise high quality private sector efforts e.g. “Social Enterprise Investment Award” in partnership with UNDP, SET and leading supporters.
• Co-ordinate members to share data, plans and resources to establish common platform for SE investment information
• Foster collaboration to create collective impact towards SDGs

3. Ensuring facilitation of knowledge building and management.

• Consolidate knowledge and best practice cases and share through online learning platforms/tools, e.g. Thailand Social Innovation Platform website and Facebook page or SE School
• Develop expert/mentor network to support resource pooling and consultation for SEs with business development and tackle specific challenges

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to deliver the followings:

• Accumulation of knowledge and best practices on how early stage SEs can prepare themselves and grow their business to match the needs of investors;
• Augmenting and scale-up impact models and processes of impact targeting businesses (impact ventures);
• More accelerator programs and investment readiness services available. Increase in deal flow and an aggregation of investors community that can share best practices and inspire other potential investors to join.
• SE knowledge consolidated on TSIP platform to increase investible SEs’ visibility and the ease of investors in spotting potential investees.
• Impact assessment and reporting standards for SEs (in compliance with internationally recognized approaches and metrics) to increase transparency and credibility of their work to standardize impact reporting in order to facilitate investors’ understanding and purchase of impact by investors in the form of measured impact units.

Institutional Arrangement:

Under the overall direct supervision of UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, the consultant will work closely with team of UNDP Thailand. The consultant will be in-charge of coordinating the day-to-day management and operations of the project, ensuring high quality, efficient and effective project delivery and report directly to Thailand Social Innovation Platform project manager.

Duration of the Assignment:

15 December 2019 – 15 December 2020 (Max. 240 working days)

Duty Station:

Bangkok, Thailand, with expected domestic and international travel.

The consultant may be required to travel to project sites 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.

Competencias

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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Minimum Advanced university degree in a relevant discipline (Finance, Economic Policy, Public Administration, social sciences, social innovation, or other relevant disciplines.)

Experience:

• At least 1 years of experience in Social Innovation; Social Impact Investment and Policy development area;
• Experience and knowledge of the Social development or Innovative Finance;
• 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 working in UN agencies, a donor organization, or international NGO.

Language:

• Excellent command of English, both spoken and written.
• Knowledge of Thai language is a significant advantage

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 Daily Allowance rates.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

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 proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

Criteria 1 Eg. Relevance of Education – Max 20 points

Criteria 2 Eg. Special skills, Language, etc.- Max 10 Points

Criteria 3 Eg. Relevance of experience in Social Innovation; Social Impact Investment and Policy development area – Max 25 points

Criteria 4 Eg. Experience working with UN agencies, a donor organization, or international NGO.– Max 15 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:

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document/ or one ZIP File as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• 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;
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal indicating professional and service fee.

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

Annex

Annex I - General Condition of Contract

Annex II- TOR_ National Consultant - Social Impact Investment

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at :http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=61170