SLOCAT Partnership

SLOCAT is the international multi-stakeholder partnership that enables collaborative knowledge and action for sustainable, low carbon transport and brings the voice of the movement into international climate change and sustainability processes.

Today our Partnership includes over 90 actors across transport sectors associations, knowledge and academia, governments, multilateral organisations, NGOs, philanthropy and industry; as well as a large community of experts and practitioners.

With a primary focus on land transport and a geographical footprint targeted on the Global South, SLOCAT develops its mission through knowledge tools and data analysis, policy advocacy and multi-stakeholder gatherings.

Objective

The SLOCAT Partnership Secretariat is seeking a consultant(s) for a project to assist Chiang Mai Municipality in increasing the usage of existing public transport during and post-COVID-19 in line with its vision plan.

Context

Chiang Mai Municipality is located in the northern part of Thailand within Chiang Mai province. It is spread in an area of 40.2 sq kms and has a population of 127.000. Being the center of government administration of Northern provinces, Chiang Mai is regarded as a development centre and is a primary city for the upper northern region since the last  four decades. Owing to the extensive development around the city, the urban areas of Chiang Mai have sprawled beyond the municipal limits, thus catering to the surrounding areas. Chiang Mai is also a popular tourist destination in Thailand and has catered to 9.6 million tourists in 2016 (Source: Chiang Mai Provincial Statistical office). Increase in the existing population and tourism has led to extensive travel movements through cars, taxis across the city causing traffic congestion, pollution etc hence also leading to increase in emissions.

About 26% of carbon emissions were reported from the transport sector, Chiang Mai Municipality in 2014 and the trend is continuing to grow. In its NDC, Thailand- the national government has committed to bring down its emissions by 25% by the year 2030 from various sectors.

Further to this, the usage of public transport has almost come to a standstill with the outbreak of COVID-19. In order to control the emissions and optimally utilize the existing public transport, Chiang Mai Municipality has sought technical assistance from Climate helpdesk. The assistance will focus on providing solutions to the city in increasing the public transport ridership along with the suggestions for running public transport during and post-COVID-19

Type of Contract and Duration

This a short-term consulting opportunity. The duration of the contract will be from approximately December 2020 – March 2021.

Each individual is exclusively responsible for compliance with all applicable taxes, tax and/or social security legislation and/or insurance legislation or any other legislation.

Scope of Work 

The consultant(s) shall provide the following work/service:

Task 1:  Analysis of the system. This task will provide a situational analysis of the public transport system in the city: pre- and post-COVID-19. The objective of this task is to understand the trends over the past three years and how the pandemic has impacted the public transport system. The post-pandemic analysis will include available 2020 data provided by the City and a stakeholder outreach (i.e., surveys and consultations).

Activities for Task 1:

1.1. Scan of Existing Public Transport in Chiang Mai– The brief situational analysis of the public transport system in the city would be mapped which would capture information on other modes of transport including private cars, bikes, 3 wheelers, vans, etc.. The brief study would also include analysis of ridership trends over the past 3 years.     .

1.2. Ridership perception survey: A qualitative survey will be conducted. The survey will be designed to understand how riders, potential riders and operators feel about public transport in the city, especially post-COVID-19. The objective of the survey will be to understand what the city can do to shift people back to public transport post-COVID-19.

1.3.  Stakeholder consultations or survey– Up to two online, or if possible, in-person consultations and online surveys with various stakeholders for public transport operations in Chiang Mai may be conducted and findings documented as part of recommendations report.

Task 2: Recommendations and outreach. This task will take the data collected to develop a recommendations report for the City based on the results of the data gathered, stakeholder outreach and analysis. Additionally, the report will include case studies with examples of strategies that may be relevant to support the recovery of the transport system in Chiang Mai.

Activities for Task 2:

2.1 Recommendations Report– Based upon the existing and the results of the surveys, a recommendations report will be developed which will focus on suggestions for improving the bus ridership, outreach campaigns (i.e., informational campaigns), and financial strategies for recovery of sustainable public transport in the city. This document will also include case studies of public transport in cities similar to Chiang Mai municipality in size and urban form.

2.2  Capacity Building through Virtual Session– At least one online session for 1.5 hours for capacity building will be conducted to train officials from Chiang Mai city on public transport. The session would be conducted by an expert on public transport. The views of the stakeholders would be used to develop proceeding documents. The proceedings will include documentation of deliberations of the webinar, questions/ discussions held, list of attendees etc.

Deliverables, Schedule, & Budget:

Task	Deliverables	Proposed Timeframe
1	1.1    Scan of Existing Public Transport in Chiang Mai 1.2    Ridership perception survey 1.3    Stakeholder consultation or survey	December 2020 – February 2021
2	2.1 Recommendations Report 2.2 Capacity building through virtual session	January 2021- March 2021

The budget for this project is USD 3,000.

How to Apply

Interested applicants can submit their proposal to secretariat@slocatpartnership.org by 20 November 2020. Only proposals in English will be considered.