Since February 2020, Assistant Professor Nattapong Puttanapong , Ph.D from Faculty of Economics was appointed to be an economic expert in The National Committee on Sustainable Development which is the official national body driving SDGs in Thailand.
Please see the Official Appointment Announcement here.
From March to June 2020, SDG Move undertook policy-focused research for Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI), an organization under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. It was the analysis of data and the design of future scenarios to support the science research and innovation plan. TSRI wants this development plan to be the catalyst of change that would steer Thailand to progress more sustainably and inclusively along the line of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The research was conducted at two levels, namely national and regional level. Foresight (i.e. Horizon Scanning and Delphi) was used as the research methodology. Data collection was conducted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the national level, the SDG Move research team did the horizon scanning by reviewing secondary data related to all SDGs from national and international data source, as well as scanning social signals appearing in social medias and news. Then 60 experts were selected and asked to do adapted Delphi surveys. The surveys were conducted two rounds. The first round was to verify the critical sustainability issues found from the Horizon Scanning. The second round was to prioritize the issues, using two main criteria namely the level of importance and the level of policy readiness.
Moreover, SDG Move also worked with 6 regional teams, using the same methodology, to obtain each region’s crucial sustainability challenges, as well as to assess knowledge stock and gap for these challenges. The findings were used as inputs for TSRI strategic plan for budget year 2021.
Please see the report here:
SDG Move, under Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, was operating as a Strategic Research Issue (SRI) Unit number 14 on SDGs for Thailand Research Fund (TRF), one of the largest granting agency at the time. The role for SDG Move as SRI unit was to follow the implementation and academic progress regarding SDGs both at national and global level, and specify areas in which TRF should grant research fund.
In the period between 2018-2019, SDG Move focused the areas of research grant on the theme of Localizing SDGs as well as base-line research on SDG 3, 6, 10, 11 and 17. It also analyzed the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI) strategic plan for budget year 200 against the SDGs. It is found that the TSRI strategic plan for budget year 2020 was quite imbalance as the plan was focusing on economic policies.
Please more details on SDG Move here, and its official website here.
Please the report of SDG Move phase II here:
In 2019, Thammasat University, by Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University (through Thammasat University Research And Consultancy Institute (TURAC)), received a funding for the project “The Development of Monitoring and Evaluation System for the Promotion of Sustainable Consumption and Production in Thailand: Phase 2” from Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP). This phase-2 project studied the calculation methods of SDG12 indicators, created, improved, and augmented the existing database to enable the importation, evaluation and monitoring of the selected SDG12 indicators.
The five selected indicators are the followings: 12.1.1 Number of countries with sustainable consumption and production (SCP) national action plans or SCP mainstreamed as a priority or a target into national policies; 12.4.2 Hazardous waste generated per capita and proportion of hazardous waste treated, by type of treatment; 12.7.1 Number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans; 12.8.1 Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development (including climate change education) are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment; 12.B.1 Number of sustainable tourism strategies or policies and implemented action plans with agreed monitoring and evaluation tools.
This study was conducted by a team of scholars from Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, Srinakarinwirot University, and Chulalongkorn University.
In October 2020, Office of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) published the first revised version of Thailand Sustainable Consumption and Production Roadmap. This revision is a collaboration between Thammasat University and ONEP.
The purpose is to incorporate SDG 12 indicators as well as the related Master Plan for the National Strategy (2018-2037) into the previous version of the Roadmap which was drafted and implemented before the completion of the Master Plans of the National Strategy. Moreover, the revised roadmap was also designed to show more interconnectedness between sustainable consumption and sustainable production, i.e. all SCP sectors need to work together to achieve the SCP-related SDG goals (meaning SDG 12 and other related goals such as SDG 2 on food system, SDG 11 on building and constructions, SDG 4 on education for sustainable development and SDG 8 on sustainable tourism).
Asst. Prof. Chol Bunnag from Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, and Director of SDG Research and Support Programme was working in collaboration with ONEP team and other stakeholders.
Please see the Revised SCP Roadmap below:
Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University is one of the leading economics faculties in Thailand. It is also one of a few economics faculties that provide diverse courses in economics.
Regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2018 curriculum offers wide range of courses that provide better understanding, economic theories and solutions for sustainability challenges in relations to the SDGs, such as Gender Economics, Climate Change Economics, and Economics of Sustainable Development. These courses are as follows:
Please see the website: http://www.econ.tu.ac.th/?action=course&type=course&menu=34&pgmenu=296&lang=th&link=
SDG Move contacted Margreet de Heer, a Dutch author, and got an approval for the translation of the comic “The Planet and the 17 Goals”, which is the cooperation between UNICEF, PCI Media, World’s Largest Lesson, PVBLIC, and Reading with Pictures. The comic was released for the first time in English version in September 2015, and was then translated into several languages around the world.
SDG Move team translated the comic and published via SDG Move website and facebook page in July 2020. It can be accessed via the link below. It has been well received by Thai audience especially Thai teachers who want to teach SDGs to their pupils.
Link to comic: https://www.sdgmove.com/2020/07/21/the-planet-and-the-17-goals-thai/
SDG Move cooperated and participated in the series of workshops organised by IBF international consulting, financed by the European Union, to formulate civil society action plan in driving the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals between 2020-2022.
Photo by: IBF International Consulting, and European Union
For the workshop on August 19, 2020, Asst. Prof. Chol Bunnag, Faculty of Economics and director of SDG Move, was giving background on SDG and progress of SDGs at all levels to the CSO participants and discussed plans for 4 clusters.
SDG Move play roles in supporting capacity building for CSOs and responsible for cluster (i) of the CSO-SDG plan.
Please see the policy brief in the document:
SDG Move (SDG Research and Support Programme) joined a panel in the Ninth Regional Workshop on Integrated Research Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus: Safeguarding finite water-energy-land resources for future generations, on 22 to 23 May 2019. This workshop is organizsed by GIZ in cooperation with UNESCAP and Local Government for Sustainability (ICLEI).
Dr. Nuttavikhom (Kay) Phanthuwongpakdee, an expert on resilience cities and SDG11 of SDG Move, was a discussant in session 6: Employing Resource Integration to Achieve Global Goals: Accelerating Progress to Meet Our Commitments). Please see the attachment for the details of the workshop.
SDG Move or SDG Research and Support Programme is a research programme under Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University. It is one of the first research programme in the country established specifically for SDGs. It is also regarded as one of a few SDG knowledge hubs in the country.
SDG Move was established in 2016 as a cooperation between the Faculty and Thailand Research Fund (TRF). It functioned as a strategic research issue unit (SRI Unit) that follow academic and practical movement of SDG implementation and set a direction for SDG-related research funding each year. So far it has funded a series of research for baseline for each SDG in the context of Thailand, and another series about localisation of SDGs.
After the establishment of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESRI), TRF was dissolved and reformulated to be the office of Thailand Science Research and Innovation Committee (TSRI), and no longer able to fund the SRI units. SDG Move then moved back to the Faculty in late 2019.
Website: https://www.sdgmove.com/