LRPS-2024-9190032 Periodic Assessments of the Child Support Grant in Thailand

Background

In 2015, the Thai Government launched the Child Support Grant (CSG), a non-contributory child benefit. The CSG has since expanded in scope and transfer value. Presently, families with children under six earning below 100,000 Thai Baht annually receive a monthly allowance of 600 Thai Baht.

Despite this evidence and civil society advocacy, the path to a universal CSG with adequate transfer values faces obstacles. The current Thai CSG omits many eligible children, with a 2019 assessment indicating a 30% exclusion error. In addition, the latest research which was conducted after the revision of income criteria to 100,000 baht per person per year contradictorily found even higher exclusion rate, which is between 29 # 54% differed in various target groups (poverty-stricken household, household with income lower than 100,000 baht per person per year, and households of 40% of low-income distribution) even with an increased income criteria. Moreover, the stagnant transfer value of 600 Thai Baht per child has not been revised for years, undermining the program’s poverty reduction potential. An analysis from 2015 to 2021 shows a consistent child poverty rate, suggesting limited impact. Annually, the Department of Children and Youth (DCY), under the Ministry of Society Development and Human Security, contends with other policy areas for CSG funding. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate, assess, and convey the CSG’s effect on the quality of life of the beneficiaries to policymakers, especially after almost a decade of implementation.

 

Objectives, Purpose & Expected results

The objective of these Periodic Assessments is to assist the Royal Thai Government in analyzing the impact of the CSG and provide insights to support the relevant agencies in formulate policies and approaches that can help improve or complement the CSG. More specifically, it aims to:

1. Assess the effectiveness of the Child Support Grant.

2. Identify the benefits of the Child Support Grant for the benefiting households.

3. Identify the gaps in beneficiaries’ needs, especially of those who are within the vulnerable population.

4. Regularly monitor the trends on how the CSG affects the quality of life among the beneficiaries.

 

Description of the assignment

The aim of this assignment is to support the design and initial data collection of a periodic assessment to follow a cohort of representative sample of beneficiaries of CSG from the moment they enroll in the scheme through their graduation upon reaching 6 years of age. The assessment should provide insights to the primary and secondary short and long-term effects produced by the CSG. The assessment aspects should cover the following areas (but not limited to): improvement in households’ financial situation, child’s nutrition, access to healthcare, education, decision-making power of the mother. The analysis should also reflect areas of improvement of the public services and benefits for children.

The target sampling groups should cover a representative stratified sample of the CSG beneficiary population, focusing but not limited to:

Households with a child with disabilities

- Household with a child living with people with disabilities

- Household headed by a single parent

- Skipped generation households, where the child lives with caregivers other than biological parents

- Households without any of the above attributions

For the implementation of the project, the contractor will be required to work in close collaboration with UNICEF and the DCY. The different parties will partake in different roles, as follows:

UNICEF will be the contract manager of this project handling the coordination and the overall supervision of the project.

DCY will support on identifying and sharing the basic information of the CSG beneficiaries, undergoing the data collection process, provide comments to the analysis, participating in the formulation in the policy recommendation and takeover the whole assessment process for the following years.

The contractor will conduct the following tasks:

- Design of the periodic assessment, which covers the methodology, sampling and design of the questionnaires

- Support the DCY in the data collection process which covers the training on surveying practices to the enumerators/relevant officers and provide technical guidance when needed

- Data compilation and analysis of the survey results and reporting for the first year

- Formulation of policy recommendations in consultation with relevant government agencies

- Capacity building to the DCY on the periodic assessment process and analysis to prepare the DCY for the next assessment rounds.

 

The assignment is divided into four main activities as below.

Activity 1: Undertake an inception exercise and submit a report, which includes:

- Brief overview of the assessment’s background and objectives.

- Overview of the CSG scheme in Thailand and description of the scope of work.

- Detailed description of the approach and methods that will be used to conduct the periodic assessment, including relevant tools and frameworks.

- Desk review and analysis of the existing data related to children’s well-being; including data to be accessed through the partners (if relevant).

- Data collection and analysis plan, including sampling, the outline of the questionnaire, complementing data sources to be used and how the data will be collected, organized, and analyzed, as well as potential data limitation and mitigation strategies.

- Proposed timeline, including milestones and deadlines for key deliverables and schedule for progress updates and reporting.

- A draft SOPs on data collection The inception report will be key in confirming a mutual understanding of what is to be conducted, including additional insights into executing the assignment. At this stage, the consultant team will consult closely with the

DCY and UNICEF team to confirm the scope of the assignment, refine, and verify the framework and tools, and further improve on the methodology proposed in the TOR to strengthen its rigor.

Activity 2: Conduct a first assessment survey as part of the periodic assessment. The contractor will undertake two main tasks:

1) Provide capacity building for the DCY in data collection. The contractor will conduct training and provide technical assistance to the DCY team throughout the data collection process. This includes performing preliminary data analysis.

2) Submit a brief of the preliminary findings, which includes:

· Overview of status of the CSG beneficiaries in Thailand: number, demography, trends

· Preliminary analysis of the collected data in terms of impact and adequacy of the CSG

· Preliminary messages about the effectiveness of the CSGs

· Recommendations of the improvement of the CSG and proposal of complementing services

· Suggestions on how to improve the data collection process.

Upon close consultation with DCY and UNICEF, the contractor will present the findings from the report of the preliminary findings in a validation workshop with a broader group of key stakeholders within the DCY and solicit their feedback.

Activity 3: Finalize and submit the full report and policy brief. The contractor will undertake two main tasks:

1) Based on the result from activity 2, the contractor is required to facilitate in-person/ on-site trainings to the surveyors. It is estimated for at least 4 trainings in 4 targeted provinces.

2) Finalize and submit the full report and policy brief which should include the following:

· Introduction: background of CSG in Thailand, history, relevance budget

· Revisions from the brief of preliminary findings based on the feedbacks from the validation workshop, complete the data collection, collect additional data, if necessary, add the full analysis and refine the recommendations. The report will include an executive summary of no more than 3 pages. Once cleared, they will submit the final report for approval. In addition to the report, the contract will hand-over to the national counterpart the new database/dataset compiled from the primary data collection, which will be used as the basis for the task below on capacity building). The contractor will develop a policy brief highlighting key findings, policy messages, and figures, along with infographics, as well as a presentation for the purpose of communication (details about the audience and the objectives of the policy brief to be discussed).

Activity 4: Capacity building to the DCY core team.

The contractor will submit a finalized manual/SOPs for data collection, conduct training in the periodic assessment process and analysis and provide assistance to the DCY team. This activity aims to equip the DCY team with the technical knowledge to conduct their own assessment in the following years.

 

Deliverables and Timeline

Deliverable 1:

a) Inception report (Maximum 20 pages, in Thai and English)

b) Draft SOPS for data collection in Thai

c) Draft survey in Thai and English

d) PowerPoint Presentation of the inception report in Thai and English

Number of estimated working days: 15 working days

Timeframe: Month 1-2 tentatively in June and July 2024

Deliverable 2:

a) Initial online training to the DCY surveyors conducted in Thai, at least 1 session for half-day. The recording should be made available for self-learning. Tentatively in August 2024, estimated participants of 100 persons online.

b) Brief of preliminary findings (Maximum 5 pages, in Thai and English)

c) PowerPoint Presentation of the preliminary report in Thai and English

d) In-person validation workshop with the DCY conducted in Thai, one session for half-day. Tentatively in September 2024, maximum 10 persons at the DCY office in Bangkok.

Number of estimated working days: 25 working days

Timeframe: Month 3-4 tentatively in August to September 2024

Remark: Deliverable 2b - brief of preliminary findings is expected to be available by mid-September 2024.

Deliverable 3:

a) In-person/ on-site trainings to the surveyors conducted in Thai, full day training. It is estimated for 4 trainings in 4 targeted provinces in 4 regions of Thailand. Tentatively in mid-October 2024, estimated participants of 30 persons per one training.

b) Final report with executive summary (Maximum 30 pages, in Thai and English)

c) Policy brief (Maximum 3 pages, in Thai and English)

d) PowerPoint Presentation to communicate final findings in Thai and in English

e) Database/dataset compiled from the primary data collection in Thai

Number of estimated working days: 20 working days

Timeframe: Month 5-12 tentatively in October 2024 to May 2025.

Deliverable 4:

a) In-person training at the DCY Bangkok office to the core team responsible for the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of CSG conducted in Thai. Tentatively in January 2025, estimated participants of 10 persons per one training, 2 sessions, full day.

b) Final operational manual/SOPS (Maximum 10 pages in Thai)

Number of estimated working days: 10 working days

Timeframe: Month 8-12 tentatively in October 2024 to May 2025.

For full details, please refer to the attached Terms of Reference.

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Best regards,

UNICEF Supply team