On 26 October 2020, Mr. Wattanawit Gajaseni, Deputy Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered the opening remarks at the “Social Return on Investment (SROI) Analysis Workshop” co-hosted by TICA and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under the triangular cooperation between Thailand and UNFPA. Dr. Wassana Im-Em, Head of UNFPA Thailand Country Office also delivered a welcome speech. The workshop was attended by officials from the Thai government agencies and academic institutions.  

SROI is a framework to measure and articulate the outcomes by translating the social policy projects into a financial ratio which is easy to understand and to elaborate how much the investment projects are worth. SROI evaluates outcomes through the theory of change or how inputs lead to outputs and outcomes. The seven principles of SROI are (1) Involve stakeholders in consultation throughout the analysis, (2) Understand how change is created, and evaluate through evidence gathered, both positive and negative as well as those are intended and unintended, (3) Value the things that matter by using financial proxies, (4) Include only what is material to give an accurate and fair picture for stakeholders, (5) Do not over-claim, (6) Be transparent and (7) Verify the results and ready for appropriate and independent third party audits.

On this occasion, Mrs. Arunee Hiam, Director of Partnership for Development Bureau, TICA, delivered presentation entitled “Thailand’s Development Cooperation and Social Return on Investment” covering the subjects of Thailand’s international development cooperation approach, Official Development Assistance (ODA), and TICA’s guidelines and evaluation framework including expectations from SROI approach. 

For more information on SROI analysis on “the Effectiveness of Thailand-UNFPA South-South and trilateral cooperation: Social Return in Investment Analysis” please visit https://thailand.unfpa.org/en/SSC-SROI