LRPS-2023-9186666 Assessment of UNICEF’s national campaign to promote online safety for children and young people in Thailand

UNICEF Thailand is seeking a qualified institution to conduct an Assessment of UNICEF’s national campaign to promote online safety for children and young people in Thailand

Background

The rapid expansion of digital technology and internet access have greatly impacted the lives of children and youth in Thailand. As children and young people spend more time online, they also face increased risks and harms in the digital world, from online sexual exploitation and abuses, cyberbullying, online grooming, sexual solicitation, to the creation and sharing of sexual abuse images etc. Children are also vulnerable to hate speech, mis- and disinformation, and online abuses on social media platforms.

Among different types of online risks children may face in the online world, online sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) is one of the most pressing issues in Thailand, with around 9% of internet users aged 12-17 fallen victims of OCSEA, such as being coerced into sexual activities or having their sexual images shared without consent.3 Additionally, 11% of children aged 9 to 18 reported experiencing online harassment and sexualized comments.4 The number of Cyber Tipline reports related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from Thailand has also been increasing, with the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) receiving over 589,000 reports in 2021 alone. Online grooming is a growing issue, with children particularly vulnerable due to unsupervised use of technology.

However, only a small percentage of children who have experienced online abuses reported it while one third of them tell nobody at all. This is due to lack of awareness about where to turn for help and discomfort in disclosing the abuse. Recent research by UNICEF, INTERPOL and ECPAT shows that almost half of children in Thailand do not know where to report the abuse nor access the support services. Social workers and police view the low reporting rates as a result of parents and caregivers’ low awareness of the risks of online harms.

Objectives, Purpose & Expected Results

The purpose of this assessment study is to gauge the effectiveness of the National public advocacy Campaign on Protecting Children and Young People from Online Risks launched by UNICEF in October 2023. The company will conduct a public awareness and perception survey after the campaign to measure the impact on the campaign key audience’s awareness around sextortion, reporting channels, and safe practice, in comparison to baseline data. In particular, the changes in their knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards the issue will be measured.

The assessment should inform UNICEF Thailand how the campaign, beyond the output based KPIs (e.g. media coverage and social media reach and engagement metrics) has contributed to the increased knowledge and awareness of the audience on sextortion and online safety, the importance of talking about it, actionable preemptive measures to stay safe online and available channels to report online abuse and exploitation cases as well as seek support services, if needed. The assessment will also capture the campaign key audience’s attitude towards sextortion and online abuses, and capture impact of the campaigns in shifting attitudes and practices based on the goal of the online safety campaign.

Additionally, the assessment will gather audience feedback on the campaign content and identify the channels through which they received the content, as well as assess perception towards UNICEF’s brand image on issues related to online safety.
The findings of the campaign assessment will inform UNICEF’s future programmes to promote child online protection and online safety among children, parents, and caregivers, thereby improving programme interventions and outreach, and will provide valuable lessons learned for future campaigns on online safety.

Location and duration

Location:
• The assignment will be completed at the contractor's premises.
• The contractor is expected to interact with key stakeholders regularly in Bangkok and in the selected target provinces in Thailand (for qualitative survey) as needed. A minimum of 8 focus group discussions will be conducted.
• If in-country travel is required under this assignment, particularly to collect information in the target provinces. The contractor will be responsible for acquiring resources and facilities required for their completion, including travel arrangements with travel budget supported by UNICEF.
• In a circumstance that travel is prohibited due to safety concern or other restrictions. In that case, the contractor shall adopt virtual communication tools to obtain adequate information for the research.

Duration:
December 2023 – May 2024. The additional duration is given to ensure sufficient time for the completion of invoicing and payment process.

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

This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system (UNGM).

By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html .

In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission.

Please note that in order to access the full-set of tender documents through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (1) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (2) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering.

Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated.

All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log-in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.

Should you have any questions against this solicitation, please submit your queries to Tongchanok Sonsawangphol at tsonsawangphol@unicef.org with CC to: thl-ml-bkksupply@unicef.org - no later than 17th November 2023 so that all queries could be clarified and circulated to all bidders before the deadline.

We look forward to receiving your proposals within the given timeline.

Best regards,
UNICEF Supply team