Remarks of Resident Coordinator Thailand at ITU Regional Development Forum

Main socioeconomic challenges the country office is addressing due to COVID-19.

Thank you so much for the invitation to join this panel and for organizing the Regional Development Forum to discuss the synergies that digitisation can bring to bear in achieving the SDGs. It is a very important conversation to be had during this unique time in the world.  

All evidence suggests that the pandemic will impact the SDGs but does not have to, especially if we collectively leverage the megatrend of digital technology and innovation to sustain and maximize development gains, while building back better.

Although Thailand became the second country to confirm a COVID19 case, the country has shown national resilience to cope, adapt and transform, to turn crisis into opportunity.

It is the first country that has assessed its pandemic response and how to improve it, including strengths within the public health system, civil society, and government. I will talk more about this in a bit.

Let me briefly set out the key socio-economic challenges that the country faces due to the pandemic and the highlights of how UN used digital assets to strengthen innovation in its response plan.

The first challenge relates to economic growth and vulnerability.

The economy in Thailand is expected to contract by over 8%, at least 7.5 million jobs ae likely to be disrupted, middle class, (represented by people earning $5.5 a day), will contract by 12%, working poverty will rise to 14%.   

This will have a knock-on effect for those working in the informal economy. 8 in 10 farm households (especially those engaged in crops and livestock) are seeing a drop in income. HH debt, which (constituted 80% of GDP prior and) is among the highest in the region, is rising, challenging vulnerable households to service their debt payments, and impacting macro-economic stability.  

SMEs especially the small and low-tech firms, which form the backbone of the Thai economy (as they contribute to over a third of the GDP), have seen extreme revenue losses due to drop in demand and disruption of supply chains.

However, it is worth noting that over the past month we are seeing an uptick in demand across some targeted sectors – specifically electronics.

As the UN we are working in partnership with SMEs to transfer green technologies to support a green recovery. At the request of the government we are monitoring the fiscal stimulus package to understand the impact on job creation and reviving local economies. The UN has also created a platform to bring together young Social Entrepreneurs to support innovation to reach the hard to reach communities specifically the elderly, ethnic minorities and framers, amongst others. We connected Social Entrepreneurs in Thailand with young entrepreneurs from Japan, Korea, and Singapore to foster cross border innovation.

The second challenge relates to social protection to ensure no one is left behind.

A third of the government’s fiscal stimulus package takes the form of social transfers for poor and vulnerable households, including farmers. However, despite the social protection system being relatively well developed in Thailand, there were challenges in taking it up to scale, specifically in an efficient and targeted manner for the informal sector. 

The UN used its policy leverage to enable the government to top up the old age, child and disability grants, which together reached 7 million people. We also support the government to develop strategies for a comprehensive social protection system for the informal sector, including migrants. We believe that the pandemic has made this a priority for all of us. The UN is partnering with civil society to develop a community food management network to link the supply chains with markets, across the poorer provinces of the country.

The third challenge relates to the social impact of the pandemic.

It is estimated that 13 million students have been affected by school closures and delays, to the start of the new academic year. Migrant children face greater risk of being excluded from the education system, with learning centres unable to meet physical distancing criteria.

Mental wellbeing has been impacted with young women and elderly men most affected. In fact, data suggests that we have seen an increase in suicides and GBV.

As the UN we are partnering with the government and Facebook to use social media to amplify messages and raise awareness on issues of GBV and mental wellbeing. We reached over 21 million people across the country in the first phase of our partnership. The second phase of the campaign is starting as we speak. We are also supporting the government to better monitor GBV through its hotline, provide phyco-social counselling and respond comprehensively to cases of intimate partner violence.    

Let me conclude by saying that UN Thailand is focused on supporting a green recovery, using its policy leverage to advance social protection measures for the informal sector and digital assets, which I will talk more about in my next intervention, to develop new models of service delivery.

Digital connectivity and technology can assist in addressing them.

The UN has prioritized innovation and digitization as a theme to build back better, which will also be a priority for our UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

As part of our response plan there are two high level digital interventions that are being prioritized which focus on SDGs 3 and 4 dealing with health and education.

In my previous intervention I already mentioned how education was disrupted heavily because of the pandemic, with the impact being on young students.

The variances in access, quality of connectivity and access to devices, affected the quality of education.

This disruption revealed the importance of bridging the digital divide to address existing learning inequalities.

The UN through ITU, UNESCO and UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Economy, to map the digital infrastructure and bridge the digital divide through e-learning platforms.

ITU is leading the first phase, to map and identify geographies, schools and communities which are underserved, under connected and lack access to internet.

In the second phase, UNESCO and UNICEF in partnership with ITU will examine the e-learning platforms, to scale up digital learning.

This will contribute to the new normal education service, which is increasing becoming the norm globally.

Concurrently, the UN through WHO, is working with the Ministry of Public Health to pilot a “new normal” medical service system. The model is designed to protect health workers and patients, while institutionalising telemedicine.

As part of the model, patients with different diseases are classified into three 'traffic light' groups – green, yellow, and red – based on the need for direct medical care and risk of infection.

The green lane includes patients that do not need to visit the healthcare facility and are supported by remote consultation through telemedicine. If medication is required, drugs are delivered to patients by village health volunteers.

The yellow lane includes patients that need to visit healthcare facilities and the patient pathway is modified to ensure maintenance of physical distancing.

The red lane includes more intensive care patients where services have been made safer for patients and health care providers through upgraded ventilation within facilities.

ITU can support the UNCT in the post-COVID new normal and accelerating the achievement of SDGs.

The pandemic has shown how important ICT and connectivity is for development. Today it is clear that the future is digital and those who do not benefit from this will be left behind.

We are capitalizing on ITUs leadership and expertise through several joint initiatives in Thailand.

In addition to the engagement with digital mapping of infrastructure to support e-learning, UN is scaling up its partnership with ITU and the private sector in Thailand to target young boys with ICT skills – including coding, AI and smart agriculture. Unlike most countries, in Thailand, more girls than boys complete secondary and higher education and thus the imperative is to start engaging with young boys to bridge the education gap.

I am very keen to explore 3 ideas with ITU to bolster UN’s work of leaving no one behind.

First is in social protection. The expertise of ITU can support the UN to offer high quality technical solutions, including AI and GIS, to efficiently scale up the social protection system and enable real time targeting of vulnerable populations across the country.

Second, is in agriculture. Given that farmers are emerging as one of the most impacted communities, I am keen to explore the use of technology to map famers across the country to enable fast tracking of basic information on rainfall and climate, linking farmers to markets, and targeting of agricultural services, amongst others.

Third is in environment and climate change. UN Thailand is prioritising the issue of air pollution and haze, which is largely caused by crop burning in the country and regionally. I am keen to explore ITU expertise to enable real time tracking of crop burning and data that may help address air pollution in Thailand.     

Final Intervention

All evidence suggests that the pandemic will impact the SDGs, but it does not have to, if innovation and the use of digital assets is strategically maximized to build back better. Ultimately the opportunity in this crisis has been to show how quickly the world can adapt to the new normal when connected online, and the related development solutions that it can bring.

We look to leveraging the expertise of ITU, in partnership with the UNCT, to scale up digital solutions for today’s development challenges; bridge the digital divide to ensure no one is left behind and bring the megatrend of digitisation to bear on climate change to collectively strengthen science-based responses. 

Thank you for the opportunity to engage with you today.