(Consultancy) Disaster Response Management Baseline and End-Line Assessment

Position description

Global Support and Development (GSD) is a humanitarian organization whose mission is to work with regional, national, and local authorities and key actors across the Caribbean, Central America, and the Pacific for resilience to crises through rapid response, disaster preparedness, and climate adaptation.

GSD began as an impromptu response to Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu in 2015. Since our founding, we have worked with regional, national and local communities and supported various International and US domestic disaster response and preparedness efforts. This first response defined the core of GSD’s DNA as an organization–to work with communities–led by their needs, filling the gaps they have identified while leveraging unique approaches and capabilities with an innovation mindset. By integrating our team’s diverse skill sets and resources into local responses, we can provide rapid response assistance to affected communities in coordination with regional, national, and local community partners. We also work to support and strengthen local capacity through disaster preparedness initiatives including innovation and climate adaptation. We engage with regional, national, and local communities to reduce the impact disasters and the climate crisis have on communities. GSD’s holds three enablers we consider essential to our work as the standards to which we hold ourselves and our requirements for GSD action: being locally led, ensuring good stewardship of resources, and our values of humility, integrity and accountability.

1. Introduction

Global Support and Development (GSD) invites proposals from qualified research and evaluation firms to design a baseline and endline study (herein referred to as the assessment) and then implement the baseline component of the assessment.

The assessment will be designed to measure and track system-level changes in disaster preparedness and response systems across up to eight countries in the Caribbean as well as at the regional level. At the country level, the focus will be on the National Emergency Management Authorities and at the regional level the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and possibly a few utility associations that have a role in mutual aid support.

This study will investigate institutional transformation, policy shifts, and the evolving nature of disaster governance. The purpose is to assess how systems change in structure, capacity and policy orientation is contributing to a countries’ response readiness.

This assignment will generate a baseline in 2026 and an endline in 2029, with a strong emphasis on qualitative insight, participatory learning, and systems thinking.

2. Purpose

This assignment will provide GSD and partners with a comprehensive and comparative evidence base framework to track systemic change over time, focusing on the enabling conditions and transformation trajectories of institutions responsible for national disaster response management and regional coordination.

The study’s purpose is to design an approach that:

• Establishes a shared understanding of the baseline across targeted country and regional entities.
• Supports the Identification and documentation of factors that enable or constrain system-level progress.
• Provides strategic and evidence-based recommendations for enhancing national and regional capacities.
• Serves as a critical learning tool for GSD’s internal reflection and external engagement.

This study is intended to serve not only GSD’s strategic needs but also inform national and regional actors, donors, and other stakeholders interested in strengthening disaster preparedness systems sustainably and equitably.

3. Objectives of the Study

The study will design a system that enables the following core objectives:

• Establish a 2026 baseline of institutional and system-level conditions in each country and regional entity.
• Identify a way for changes to be tracked and progress measured over a set interval towards strengthened, more adaptive, and inclusive preparedness systems by 2029.
• Analysis of patterns of change, including contextual factors, shocks, and stakeholder actions that shape system trajectories.
• Document GSD’s contribution to system-level change through relevant methods such as outcome harvesting and contribution analysis.
• Generate credible and user-friendly knowledge products, including country profiles, regional syntheses, change stories, and visualizations that inform decision-making.

4. System Dimensions

The system change framework underpinning this study is structured around four core dimensions that reflect how institutional systems interact to drive or hinder transformation. GSD is making an assumption that this is a correct or relevant framework. The vendor can modify/improve this framework as needed.

• Policy and Governance: Enabling policy and frameworks for preparedness, risk reduction, and locally led efforts.
• Infrastructure and Tools: Operational infrastructure, EOCs, contingency planning, digital systems.
• Capacity and Resources: Human, technical, logistical, and financial resources available to institutions and systems.
• Institutional Readiness: Clarity and operationalization of institutional roles, mandates, coordination platforms, and response mechanisms.

These dimensions anchor the data collection, analysis, and reporting across countries and regional institutions. Community-level components are excluded, as GSD support largely focuses on institutional and systemic actors.

5. Scope of Work

The firm selected through this RFP will be responsible for the following components:

1. Design & Inception (Q1 2026)

• Conduct a desk review of the DRM system and approach in the Caribbean, including lessons learned in measuring system level impact and related literature, to help inform the baseline design; the desk review should also include existing data from interested partners’ country work plans and regional programs of work and their associated measures of success. GSD will work with partners to help provide the vendor with access to key stakeholders and secondary data.
• Develop a tailored assessment framework with GSD that builds on the four system dimensions above (modified as needed and informed by the desk review) that combines primarily qualitative data with some quantitative approaches.
• Design and test tools (e.g., scoring scales, interview guides, mapping templates etc.)
• Conduct initial consultations with country stakeholders and regional actors.
• Produce an Inception Report detailing a proposed Theory of Change, methodology, tools, timeline, and field protocols.

2. Baseline Study (Q2+ 2026)

• Implement a participatory and multi-method baseline in targeted countries and with key regional institutions. A vetted, approved list of both stakeholder groups will be provided to the vendor.
• Collect data using methods such as:
• Desk Reviews
• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
• Outcome Harvesting
• Quantitative
• Produce detailed baseline reports per country and region, including system maps and readiness scores.

3. End-line Study Design (2029)

• The end-line assessment will be contracted separately but after designing and implementing the baseline, vendor should articulate:
  • If and how the endline focus, approach and methodology could be modified.
  • How they suggest analyzing change across the assessed dimensions, compared with 2026 findings.
  • How to reassess stakeholder perceptions, policy shifts, network expansion, and institutional adaptations.
  • Articulate what the endline assessment could look like in terms of an endline report, including change stories and visual comparative frameworks etc
  • Articulate potential dissemination products including case studies, infographics, briefing notes for authorities and other stakeholders (articulating what products and methods are recommended and why)

6. Methodology/Approach

The consulting firm is expected to apply system-thinking and qualitative learning methods designed to capture complex changes in institutional systems. This may include, but not limited to:

• Desk Review: Analysis of existing national documents, plans, and coordination platforms.
• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs): With government agencies, National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs), responders, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), community leaders.
• Scoring Tool: Develop a response readiness index (0-5 scale) for cross-country comparison.
• System Mapping: To visualize how actors, resources, and decision-making processes interact.
• Contribution Analysis: To examine how GSD’s input potentially intersects with system change.
• Participatory Methods: Ensuring findings are grounded in the lived experience of stakeholders.
• Triangulation: To verify results using multiple data sources and stakeholder perspectives.
• Regional Sensitivity: Adapting tools and approaches for regional actors (e.g., CDEMA) where centralized systems and member state dynamics play a key role.

7. Deliverables

Inception - Inception report, secondary data review, study tools & framework - January 9 - February 27, 2026

Baseline design - Overall design with an updated methodology and tools; this will include stakeholder consultation with GSD, key stakeholders from participating countries and regional bodies as well as some bilateral/multilateral institutions supporting the Caribbean. - March 2 - May 1, 2026

Baseline (2026) - An overall report including stand-alone short reports for each country and regional body. This should include a summary Dashboard comprising Baseline System Maps & Analyses as relevant. - May 4 - July 10, 2026

Endline (2029) - Updated methodology, tools and timing based on lesson learned from baseline implementation - By July 31, 2026

Synthesis and Dissemination - Product and dissemination recommendations aligned to a stakeholder mapping complete with rationale - By July 31, 2026

8. Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants must:

• This Request for Proposals is open solely to established and legally registered business entities (companies, firms, corporations, partnerships, or limited liability companies). Proposals submitted by individual independent contractors will not be considered.
• Demonstrate experience with complex, multi-country research assignments.
• Demonstrate expertise in systems analysis, institutional development, and disaster governance.
• Present a multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual, particularly, English and Spanish-speaking team.
• Show ability to work ethically and effectively with government authorities and their key partners.
• Significant experience working in the Caribbean and Central America required.
• Commit to data privacy, integrity, and equitable engagement.

9. Evaluation Criteria

Submitted proposals will be assessed based on the following weighted criteria:

• Technical soundness and innovation (35 points)
• Relevant past performance (20 points)
• Team qualifications (20 points)
• Cost effectiveness/competitiveness (15 points)
• Quality of references and client satisfaction from past engagements (10 points)

10. Submission Details

Applicants must submit:

1. Technical Proposal:

• Organizational background
• Study design and methodological approach
• Team structure and expertise
• Workplan/Gantt chart

2. Financial Proposal:

• Itemized budget ($USD)
• Travel and fieldwork estimations
• Level of effort and daily rates

3. Annexes:

• CVs of key team members
• Sample of previous related work
• References or client testimonials

11. Terms and Conditions

All proposals shall remain valid for a minimum of 90 days from the submission deadline. GSD reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals without obligation to provide rationale. The successful vendor must comply with all applicable laws, institutional procurement rules, and confidentiality requirements.

The issuance of this RFP does not constitute a commitment to award a contract. Costs associated with the preparation and submission of proposals are solely the responsibility of the vendor and will not be reimbursed by GSD.

Application instructions

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