Thailand Common Country Assessment (Submitted in January 2016) 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................. 1 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ 4 LIST OF MAPS .......................................................................................................................................... 5 ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................................................. 6 SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 9 SECTION 2: CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................ 10 1. Global Leadership ......................................................................................................................... 10 2. ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and Regional Connectivity ................................................ 11 3. Political Context ........................................................................................................................... 12 4. National Political Conflict and Reconciliation ......................................................................... 13 5. Deep South ............................................................................................................................... 14 6. Economic Conditions .................................................................................................................... 15 7. The 12th National Economic and Social Development Plan ........................................................ 16 SECTION 3: NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS, KEY OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES ............ 18 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 18 2. From Millennium Development Goals to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals ....... 18 3.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 21 3.2 Issues and recommendations for consideration ................................................................... 28 4. Education ...................................................................................................................................... 29 4.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 29 4.2 Issues and recommendations for consideration ................................................................... 39 5. Health and Well-Being ................................................................................................................. 40 5.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 40 5.2 Issues and recommendations for consideration ................................................................... 48 6. Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment ........................................................................... 48 6.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 48 7. Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change ............................................................... 55 7.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 55 7.2 Issues and Recommendations for Consideration ................................................................. 63 8. Population Changes and Movement ........................................................................................... 64 8.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 64 2 9. Governance and Public Administration ....................................................................................... 80 9.1 Situation ................................................................................................................................. 81 9.2 Issues and recommendations for Consideration .................................................................. 84 References ............................................................................................................................................ 93 Annex 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 98 Annex 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 100 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Three Economic Corridors .............................................................................................. 12 Figure 2: Poverty line, poverty incidence and poverty headcount in Thailand ................................. 21 Figure 3: Child Poverty Rates by regions (2008 and 2014) ................................................................. 25 Figure 4: Distribution of poor children by educational attainment of head of household ............... 25 Figure 5: Child poverty rates by area of residence.............................................................................. 26 Figure 6: Child poverty rate by age group ........................................................................................... 27 Figure 7: Inequality as measured by Gini Coefficient ......................................................................... 28 Figure 8: Prevalence of child disability by region ................................................................................ 34 Figure 9: Level of education of children with disabilities ................................................................... 34 Figure 10: School attendance of children with disabilities ................................................................. 35 Figure 12: One Stop Crisis Centre services provided by type of violence in 2013 ............................. 38 Figure 11: Proportion of the causes of deaths of Thais (2014) ........................................................... 42 Figure 13: Total fertility rate in Thailand ............................................................................................. 65 Figure 14: Number of children in different types of residential care institutions ............................. 76 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Growth rate of GDP (% per year) ........................................................................................... 15 Table 2: Summary of the MDGs performance of Thailand ................................................................. 18 Table 3: Poverty incidence by region ................................................................................................... 21 Table 4: Poverty incidence by level of education (aged 6 and above) (2014) .................................... 23 Table 5: Poverty incidence by age groups ........................................................................................... 24 Table 6: Net enrolment rate (per cent of population at each school age level) ................................ 29 Table 7: Retention rate by level of education .................................................................................... 29 Table 8: Net enrolment rate by regions (2013) ( per cent of population at each school age level) .. 30 Table 9: Average scores of national test (4 main subjects) (score is out of 100) .............................. 31 Table 10: Prevalence of undernourishment ....................................................................................... 41 Table 11: HIV/AIDS infection estimates ............................................................................................. 43 Table 12: Benefits and coverage of each key health scheme in Thailand ......................................... 46 Table 13: Ratios of health professionals to total populations in each region (2013) ....................... 46 Table 14: Proportion between boys and girls in education (2014) ................................................... 49 Table 15: Share of women in MP and senatorial candidates and successful candidates ................. 50 Table 16: Proportion of female high-level executives in local administrative organizations........... 51 Table 17: Registered threatened vertebrates of Thailand ................................................................. 55 Table 18: Estimated percentage of population aged 60 and over in some ASEAN countries (2015 and 2050) ..................................................................................................................................................... 65 Table 19: Number of formally identified victims of trafficking and trafficking convictions in Thailand .............................................................................................................................................................