Maya Devi Maternity Trail- SOW STTA

USAID Trade & Competitiveness

Title of Assignment: Provide technical support in developing digital asset mapping and tourism development model along the Maya Devi Maternity Trail in Lumbini.

Type of Consultancy: Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA)

Period of implementation: May 1, 2023 to May 14, 2023 

LOE: 2 weeks

Background

USAID Trade and Competitiveness Activity is a five-year activity that will provide opportunities for the Nepali economy as it recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Activity will enable Nepal to capitalize on global integration to diversify toward higher quality and higher value exports, foster sustainable job growth and income-generating opportunities for those that have previously been left behind by economic growth, and create greater sustainability and resiliency. The activity will also deliberately promote the integration of women, youth, and marginalized groups into markets to participate in economic opportunities created as Nepal’s economy grows. It will increase jobs and exports while supporting the private sector in managing risks from climate change, COVID-19, and other threats.

The goal is to accelerate firm and sector level competitiveness, generate employment opportunities, and increase sales of firms through interventions that incentivize public and private sector actors across the ecosystem to adopt new behaviors driving outcomes across three objectives: 

• To increase access to market-based financial and non-financial services; 
• To increase productivity in sectors with high growth and employment potential; and 
• To improve the investment climate and business enabling environment (BEE), especially for targeted sectors.

Purpose

Tourism sector is characterized as the sector with the most opportunities to scale, both vertically and horizontally. It has an immense capacity to capitalize on sector-level opportunities, generate employment and business opportunities, and translate benefits to all the actors involved in the sector. At present, the sector has several constraints aggravated by COVID-19 which impacts all participants in the sector. The constraints are poor infrastructure and connectivity; lack of skilled human resources; and limited promotion and market access. A key objective in improving the sector is to increase the value of its destination offering, including diversification of product offerings, upgrading of facilities and services, and upgrading the skills of tourism stakeholders in the destination.

In line with the key objective of the sector, Mayadevi Maternity Trial in Lumbini is identified as an important  tourist destination which carries religious, historic, spiritual and archeological singnificance. It has the unique offering as the birthplace of the Buddha and has the potential to attract the over 500 million Buddhists around the globe as well as other tourists interested in unique experiences. The development of the trail is expected to attract higher-value tourist, increase tourism related investment, generate employment and foster linkages to other related businesses that can further enhance the tourism potential of the area.

Limited information and data on the accessibility of present tourism infrastructure and facilities along the trail pose as a challenge for the promotion and development of the Maya Devi Maternity Trail. Digital and interactive mapping of tourism assets along the trail will provide the Activity, the local Government and private sector an inventory of current tourism assests along the trail, provide consolidated information/data on the current state of tourism assest such as resources, attractions, historical sites, amenities and hotspots along the trail as well as allow for determination of gaps and opportunities for investment and intervention in facilities, products and services.

For the assignment, the Activity is looking for a firm/company for Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTAs) to carry out digital asset mapping and develop an interactive map displaying current tourism infrastructure, facilities, products and attractions (cultural, heritage, nature, community, archaeological, architectural, historical, etc.)  within ten kilometer radius of the Maya Devi Maternity Trail in Lumbini.

Objective:

The overall objective of the assignment is to map tourism assets within 10-km radius of the Maya Devi Trail. The specific objectives are as follows: 

• Develop frameworks, tools and methodology to identify and map existing tourism assets along the Mayadevi Maternity trail. 
• Mobilize resources to conduct field level mapping of identified tourism assets along the trail. 
• Collate, curate and analyze field level data in an interactive resource map to visualize, populate and present the tourism assets along the trail as well as present possible investment opportunities and gaps as relevant.

Tasks:

1. Preparation of implementation plan, including preliminaray identification of tourism assets along the Maya Devi Maternity trail including infrastructure, facilities, products, logistical support, and attractions (cultural, heritage, nature, community, archaeological, architectural, historical, etc.) ; 
2. Develop customized data collection, management and visualization platform along with backend data curation and mapping platform;
3. Development of various surveys tools (questionnaires, FGD and KII guidelines) required for the key informant interviews and physical observations;
4. Collect, manage and curate data by verifying and authenticating data obtained during the assignment;
5. Develop customized interactive GIS maps to visualize the tourism assest along the trail; 
6. Develop required features to sort, filter and download the assets data; 
7. Develop presentation and fact sheet/brochure on the assignment highlight the major outcome and findings of the assignment; 
8. Development of a private (password protected) web-based platform with an interactive map  and analytics of data collected (in charts, graphs and other);

Deliverables & Timeline 

Required Qualifications:

• Experience in the field of digital mapping, data solution, custom application development speficially in tourism promotion and development sector;
• Should have strong communication and presentation skills, including oral and written communication and report writing;
• Should demonstrate a high degree of independence, flexibility, and ability to meet strict deadlines;
• Fluent in spoken and written English, Nepali, and the local language;
• Should have an individual pan account number registered in the inland revenue department in Nepal;
• Should be able to provide the invoice stating the daily rate of the previous consultations; and

Reporting Requirements:

The consultant will report to Tourism Value Chain Manager

All interested applicants/firms shall submit their proposals to info@tc-udhyamnepal.com by April 28, 2023.