On 30th June 2024 at Songkhla Provincial Office, the Songkhla UNESCO Creative City Initiative organized a Workshop on the Action Plan to promote Songkhla as a Creative City according to UNESCO criteria, with participation by relevant network partners, in order to create awareness among the people of Songkhla and provide an opportunity to share opinions regarding the Action Plan and other projects to support Songkhla in the future.
For this workshop, the Working Group presented development guidelines for the Action Plan and co-design of operations, as follows.
Action Plan Development Process
In order to meet the objectives and scope of work for the Consultant in preparation of an Action Plan to promote Songkhla as a Creative City according to UNESCO criteria, the Consultant designed the process and details of operations so as to achieve objectives as follows.
- 1.Consider and review the Provincial Plan with respect to promoting the Creative City of Songkhla Province in order to analyze strategies, plans and consistency of driving the Creative City according to UNESCO guidelines.
1.1 Consider and review the Provincial Plan for the previous four years (2020-2023) in order to assess strategies, plans and consistency according to questions provided in the UCCN Application Form 2023.
1.2 Consider and review the future Provincial Plan for the succeeding four years (2024-2027) in order to assess strategies, plans and consistency in promoting projects or activities related to the Creative City of Songkhla Province. - 2.Consider and review activities and projects to promote work related to Songkhla Creative City in order to analyze supportive data.
2.1 Academic data related to and supporting Songkhla Creative City.
2.2 Collective activities that help create awareness of Songkhla Creative City.
2.3 Consider and review project implementation according to Songkhla Provincial Order No. 779/2567
- 3.Consider and review implementation of the Songkhla Creative City Initiative project with respect to accordance with criteria for potential UNESCO Creative Cities Network membership, such as project objectives, strategic factors in project implementation, participation processes, structure for promoting membership of the Creative Cities Network in Thailand, and analysis of opportunities and risks, in order to assess consistency with content of Items 1 & 2.
- 4.Consider and review details of the roles and responsibilities of Songkhla Provincial Administrative Organization according to the Provincial Administrative Organization Act B.E. 2540 Amendment (No. 5) B.E. 2562, and vision, objectives and responsibilities of Songkhla Provincial Administrative Organization according to Songkhla Provincial Order No. 779/2567.
- 5. Establish analytical tools based on UNESCO tools such as the UNESCO Creative Cities Network Mission Statement (UCCN), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNESCO Declaration on Culture and Sustainable Development Policy (MONDIACULT 2022), and UNESCO Creative Cities Network Membership Application Form (UCCN Application Form 2023, via participatory processes.
- 6.Establish a participatory planning process between experts involved in promoting Creative City-related operations in Songkhla Province, a launch event for a research project on promoting urban development according to Creative City guidelines, a workshop to develop knowledge and understanding regarding promotion of Creative Cities according to the UNESCO framework, a workshop to formulate an Action Plan, and public activities to publicize and create awareness of urban development.
- 7.Define the scope of the Action Plan with emphasis on consistency with objectives of the implementing agency via analysis of the urgency of plan implementation, which must be specified in accordance with the requirements of the application document for UNESCO Creative Cities Network membership (UCCN Application Form 2023), such as three important and urgent local projects to be implemented within a period of 1-4 years, three important local projects to be implemented within a period of 5-8 years, and three important and urgent national and international projects to be implemented within a period of 1-4 years.
