ThaiNGO

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy for Falling through the Net III: An Assessment of Covid-19 impacts on Workers’ Rights in Thailand’s Fishing and Seafood industry 2020

Durations: 01 Nov 2020-31 March 2021

1. Background:

The seafood industry in Thailand has come under national and international spotlights in the past few years for its abuses of labor on fishing vessels/processing plants as well as its overfishing practices in Thailand and neighboring waters. Much effort has been invested in working systematically to tackle these environmental and social challenges in the industry – from initiatives being driven by large seafood overseas buyers, to national initiatives led by the Thai government and leading Thai companies and exporters. Additionally, civil society actors – both at the national and international levels – have invested significant resources in addressing these dynamic and complex issues. However, progress has not been at its most effective and recent developments have highlighted duplications and strategic gaps in how civil society organizations (CSOs) have been engaging the industry and government to change policies and practices. Furthermore, local CSOs’ contributions have not been fully incorporated into the current institutional reform process and this absence means that an important accountability mechanism is missing from the process. With the above diagnostic, Oxfam has been designing and convening a Thai CSO Coalition (hereafter “the Coalition”) for Ethical and Sustainable Seafood, bringing together leading local CSOs (both environmental and labor NGOs) working in the seafood sector as one collective network to map out existing interventions and capacity gaps. One of the key objectives of the CSO Coalition is to raise awareness, expose and eradicate modern day slavery and human rights violation in the Thai fishing sector through policy-oriented, research grounded and evidence-based advocacy reports.

2. Objectives of the research:

This research is being commissioned with four main objectives:

1. To obtain the latest updates on the labour situations in the Thai fishery sector, particularly on basic labour rights faced by Myanmar and Cambodian migrant workers on fishing vessels in the fishery sector in eight target coastal provinces as well as migrant workers in seafood processing factories during the Covid-19 pandemic.  
2. To formulate persuasive policy recommendations toward the Thai government, retailers, seafood companies and vessel owners to ensure that basic rights of workers are respected and labour abuses are effectively monitored by CSO and labour groups themselves.
3. To enable the labour NGOs to effectively develop a sophisticated data collection system and establish a more collaborative way of working amongst various CSO actors.
4. To gain a better understanding on the gender dynamics in the seafood sector and provide recommendations that prioritize how gender considerations can be integrated effectively.  

3. Project Deliverables & Management:

The consultant team will be responsible for the CSO Coalition on Falling through the Net III ‘s research which will be taking place from November 2020 to March 2021.

3.1 Developing data collection plan, fine-tuning and finalizing questionnaires;

3.2 Leading on data collection in the targeted provinces;

3.3 Data processing;

3.4 Report writing in Thai and English.

For more information, please contact  rtrirath@oxfam.org.uk

Terms of payments :

This is a lump sum agreement.  Payments will be made into 3 installments as follows; 

• 1st payment: 30% after contract signing and invoice received 
• 2nd payment: 40% upon approval of field research plan and questions for approval  
• Final payment: 30% upon submission of satisfied final reports (Thai and English)  

SKILLS AND COMPENTENCE:

Essential

• Relevant university degree (postgraduate degree preferred).
• Knowledge and experience of the project context (labour rights, IUU fishing, public and private policy and practices, gender lens).
• Mother-tongue fluency in Thai
• Excellent English and Thai writing.
• Have enough qualified human resources, i.e. research associates, data processors, etc.
• Strong analytical ability, excellent writing, documentation and communication skills. 

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

The individual/organization must submit the following documents along with work plan (including VAT and TAX):

• CV of the Lead Consultant’s (who will lead the assignment) Maximum 2 page highlighting related assignment completed with client name, contract person and contact details, role in the completed assignment
• Other Team members (who will be involved in the assignment) one paragraph short CV highlighting related assignment completed and role
• Workplan and budget projection according to the TOR

HOW TO APPLY: Please submit your application to hr_thailand@oxfam.org.uk by 21 October 2020.

For TOR, please refer to the link below:

https://www.thaingo.org/jobs/files/Terms of Reference - Falling through the Net III_1.pdf

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization regardless race, national origin, religious beliefs, sexual diversity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.