UNICEF Thailand is seeking a qualified institutional contractor to conduct an assessment of the economic burden of violence against children (VAC) in Thailand.     Backgroud   Violence against children (VAC) in Thailand remains widespread, with serious consequences for the realization of children's rights to health, education, and national development. Children and adolescents in Thailand experience physical, emotional, and sexual violence or online exploitation across homes, schools, digital spaces, and other institutions, with lasting individual and societal impacts.   Recent evidence highlights the prevalence of VAC in Thailand. In 2022, 54% of children (aged 1 to 14 years) experienced violent discipline at home, comprising psychological aggression (38%) and physical punishment (37%), including severe physical punishment (2%).[1] Violence in educational settings is similarly pervasive and corroborated by two independent data sources. The Global School-based Student Health Survey 2021 (GSHS) found that one in three adolescent students (32%) reported being bullied in the past year.[2] These findings are reinforced by the OECD PISA 2018, which found that approximately 27% of Thai students reported being bullied at school at least several times per month, one of the highest rates among all PISA-participating countries and well above the OECD average of 23%.[3] Further, online risks are also significant, with 9% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years reporting online sexual exploitation.[4] Furthermore, 13.2% of females and 14.9% of males aged 20 to 24 years in Thailand report having experienced their first act of sexual violence before age 18 years. The combined rates of sexual violence against children are estimated to be 14%, which affects over 600,000 people.[5]   Department of Children and Youth (DCY) administrative data from 2025 show 13,525 people received critical protection services through 77 Provincial Children and Family Homes, including 10,944 children (81%) and 2,581 adults (19%). In addition, 30 DCY long‑term shelters provided life-saving child protection case management services to 6,829 children in the same year, reflecting intensive, high‑cost responses to severe cases of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and exploitation. The response combines services and social protection financing lined to child protection outcomes, including the Child Protection Fund, which reached 3,798 children with THB 24.75 million paid, and kinship care grants, which supported 6,291 children with THB 127.13 million.[6]   In addition, according to data from One‑Stop Crisis Centres of MoPH, a total of 17,763 individuals accessed services across 572 participating hospitals. This total includes 7,904 children and adolescents (aged under 20 years) with over 85% being girls. Adolescents sought help most frequently for sexual violence (over 4,000 cases), while children under 10 primarily accessed services for physical violence, followed by sexual abuse, neglect, and psychological harm.[7]   Further, data from the Office of the Attorney General reveal that Thai public prosecutors engaged with 17,223 children across 15,784 criminal cases in Thailand's criminal justice system during 2025. The dominant offense categories were bodily harm (4,047 children), sexual offenses including rape (6,150 children combined), and murder (2,961 children), together accounting for nearly three-quarters of all child-related prosecutorial work. Children entered the system in three distinct and often overlapping capacities: as witnesses (5,604), as victims (5,353), and as accused suspects (4,815).[8]   While violence against children is fundamentally a human rights violation, its impacts extend well beyond moral and social harm, imposing high and avoidable economic costs on national development and public finances. Global estimates place the burden at 2% to 11% of GDP. Regional studies estimate that violence against children costs upper-middle-income countries in East Asia and the Pacific approximately 3.45% of GDP.     Purpose, Objective & Expected results   The purpose of this assignment is to generate a credible, Thailand-specific estimate of the economic burden of VAC. The study will quantify the principal direct and indirect costs associated with VAC and will clearly document assumptions, data limitations, and uncertainty.   The objectives of the assignment are to   Estimate the economic burden of VAC in Thailand, for a defined reference year (either 2024 or 2025), express in monetary terms and as a share of the GDP, and disaggregated by four types of violence (physical, emotional/psychological, sexual and online exploitation) capturing direct costs, indirect tangible costs, and indirect intangible costs across health, education, justice, child protection, and economic productivity domains, using internationally recognized methodologies. Conduct a mapping and data feasibility assessment during inception and identify: (i) domains that can be robustly estimated, (ii) domains requiring proxy assumptions, and (iii) domains to exclude or treat only in sensitivity analysis. Estimate the average lifetime cost per victim for a clearly defined subset of cases using an incidence‑based approach, reported separately and not added to the headline estimate.   The contractor is expected to deliver a concise, headline estimate of the economic burden of VAC in Thailand. It will provide clear, decision‑oriented evidence on the cost of violence against children and the economic rationale for prevention and early intervention. The findings will directly support UNICEF and key government stakeholders (particularly those responsible for finance, planning, and child protection) in prioritizing violence prevention within national development planning, public budgeting, and child protection reform processes.     Description of the assignment   The contractor will conduct an assessment of the economic burden of VAC in Thailand to produce a robust and headline estimates using internationally recognized methodologies. The scope of the assessment will be linked to four types of VAC for which prevalence and incident reporting data are available, including physical, emotional/psychological, sexual violence or online exploitation.     The contractor will undertake four inter‑linked tasks. The bidder can suggest alternative ways to meet the overall purpose and objectives listed above.   Task 1: Literature review, mapping and data feasibility assessment The contractor will conduct a targeted evidence review, mapping and data feasibility assessment during the inception phase to establish the analytical basis of the study.  This includes assessing data quality, identifying limitations, and developing a cost taxonomy and aggregation framework to ensure conceptual clarity and avoid double-counting between types of violence and settings of the violence.   Task 2: Estimation of the economic cost of violence against children The contractor will estimate the economic burden of VAC using a prevalence‑based costing model anchored in the WHO burden of disease methodology[9] and guided by the SRSG VAC Toolkit.[10] The analysis will quantify direct costs borne by public systems, indirect tangible costs related to productivity and human capital loss, and indirect intangible costs associated with reduced health‑related quality of life. Draft findings will be presented for validation, followed by a final report documenting methods, results, and limitations.   Task 3: Lifetime cost per victim The contractor will estimate the average lifetime cost per victim for a defined set of cases. This will be reported separately and will not be aggregated into the headline estimate.   Optional - Task 4: Peer-reviewed publication and dissemination The contractor will prepare a manuscript for submission to a peer‑reviewed scientific journal, based on the study’s methodology and findings. This will be submitted as co-authored paper and will include structuring the analysis to meet academic standards, responding to peer review comments where feasible, and ensuring alignment between the technical report, policy outputs, and the manuscript.     Deliverables and Timeline   The contractor will deliver a structured sequence of technical reports as listed below. The assignment shall be completed within 6 months from the contract start date.   UNICEF will review each submission of deliverables and coordinate with the Steering Committee to ensure comprehensive feedback. Consolidated written comments will be provided to the contractor, reflecting inputs from both UNICEF and the Steering Committee. The contractor shall revise and resubmit deliverables as required, incorporating the feedback until formal acceptance is confirmed by UNICEF.   Deliverable 1: Inception report The inception report will confirm the final analytical framework, methodological choices, data sources, and modeling approaches in line with the agreed technical standards. It will present a detailed workplan covering all tasks, governance and quality‑assurance arrangements, ethical considerations, data access protocols, stakeholder engagement strategy, and key risks with mitigation measures. Further, the inception report must include mapping and data feasibility assessment, cost taxonomy and aggregation rules. The report will have a clear intervention typology and referenced data sources; and map prevention and response interventions across health, social welfare, child protection, education, justice, and CP-related social protection sector. Indicative timeline of deliverable: Month 1 (August 2026)   Deliverable 2: Annual economic burden estimation - core, headline The report with a headline and annual burden estimate by four types of violence. This core report should not be more than 60 pages. Full technical annexes should be added that include the following but not limited to parameters tables (PAF, DALYs etc.), valuation approach, discounting, sensitivity analysis and limitations. It will quantify direct costs to public systems, indirect tangible costs related to productivity and human capital loss, and indirect intangible costs associated with reduced health‑related quality of life. Health impacts will be quantified using PAFs and DALYs, and all assumptions, parameters, and sensitivity analyses will be fully documented to ensure transparency and replicability. Indicative timeline of deliverable: Month 4 (November 2026)   Deliverable 3: Estimate of lifetime per victim cost report This report will present incidence‑based analysis and look at the lifetime cost per victim estimates. This will be only applied to well-defined and data-supported cases and will include both direct and indirect impacts across health, education, and productivity/human capital development. This will also include assumptions and methodology and clear separation from headline results and will not be aggregated into the headline estimate. Indicative timeline of deliverable: Month 5 (December 2026)   Optional - Deliverable 4: Peer-reviewed publication manuscript A stand-alone report in the shape of a manuscript is to be submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, based on the study’s methodology and findings. This will include structuring the analysis to meet academic standards, responding to peer review comments where feasible, and ensuring alignment between the technical report and the manuscript. Indicative timeline of deliverable: Month 6 (January 2027)     Location and Duration   The assignment duration is foreseen from August 2026 to January 2027, during which time all tasks are expected to be completed and all deliverables achieved. The detailed timeline will be agreed between UNICEF and the contractor. Bidders are expected to include their specific timeline in the technical proposal, which is subject to review and approval by UNICEF. The assignment will be mostly completed at the contractor’s premises. The contractor will be responsible for acquiring resources and facilities required for its completion, including any travel arrangements. Travel is not anticipated for this assignment. Should travel be required, it will be supported only when demonstrably essential—for example, to enable direct data access, validation, or high‑level engagement that cannot be effectively managed remotely.     For full details, please refer to the attached Annex B - 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 [email protected] - no later than 18 June 2026 so that all queries could be clarified and circulated to all bidders before the deadline.   The closing date of e-submission on UNGM is 25 June 2026 at 10.00 AM Bangkok time.   We look forward to receiving your proposals within the given timeline.   Best regards,   UNICEF Supply team