Terms of Reference for: Women Lead Transformative Pathways to Peace Through Natural Resources Management

Job Description

Christian Aid Sierra Leone

Project Background

Christian Aid Sierra Leone, under the project “Women Lead Transformative Pathways to Peace Through
Natural Resources Management”, is implementing a womencentred initiative in Kailahun, Kono, Tonkolili
and Port Loko districts. The project aims to strengthen women’s leadership in natural resource management
(NRM), promote gender equality in land ownership, and address systemic barriers contributing to conflict,
discrimination, and rights violations.
Purpose of the Research
The study seeks to generate action-oriented, evidence-based insights that will inform policy and political
discourse on the Land Act (2022), its implementation, and its implications for peace and gender equality.
The research will capture primary data from women to uncover gendered drivers of conflict, exclusion
from land rights, and related rights violations.
Objectives of the Research
11. To assess how gendered drivers and impacts of conflict constrain women’s access to productive
resources, livelihoods, and economic participation, and to identify opportunities for strengthening their
economic resilience.
2. To examine the systemic barriers limiting women’s land and property rights, and to determine how
securing these rights can enhance their economic agency, incomegenerating capacity, and longterm
financial security.
3. To document the key violations experienced by women in relation to conflict and land, and to evaluate
how these violations undermine their asset ownership, livelihood stability, and overall economic
empowerment.
Scope of the Research: The consultant will conduct the study across selected chiefdoms in Kailahun,
Kono, Tonkolili, and Port Loko. The scope includes:
 Desk review, development of methodology, sampling strategy, and research tools.
 Quantitative and qualitative data collection (digital surveys, FGDs, KIIs, participatory methods).
 Data cleaning, analysis, and triangulation.
 Preparation of inception report, draft and final research reports, datasets, and presentation materials.
 Develop a policy brief for advocacy
 A 35day consultancy period
Consultant Profile: Qualified applicants must demonstrate:
 Advanced degree in gender & development, conflict analysis, social policy, or related fields.
 Proven experience conducting gender analyses, NRMrelated studies, and policy-oriented research.
 Ability to apply an intersectional gender lens.
 Strong analytical, writing, and communication skills.
 Ability to work in local languages and deploy women enumerators.
 Field readiness and strong understanding of Sierra Leone’s sociocultural context.
Application Procedure: Interested consultants/firms should submit: Technical proposal (methodology,
approach, team roles), Financial proposal with itemized budget. Two samples of similar past work, CV of
the lead consultant. Submission Email: sierra-leone-info@christian-aid.org Copy to
fkamara@christian-aid.org and MDimoh@christian-aid.org Deadline: Close of Business, 10th April 2026 Address: Christian Aid Sierra Leone, 4B King Harman Road, CCSL Building, Richmond Ground, Freetown.

Terms of Reference for

“Conducting policy-relevant research in communities,
capturing primary data and insights of women on root
causes/drivers of conflict, women’s exclusion from land rights and rights violations”.

Project Name: Women Lead Transformative Pathways to Peace
Through Natural Resources Management

1. Summary Table
Project Women Lead Transformative Pathways to
Peace Through Natural Resources Management

Project Districts Kailahun (Chiefdoms: Njaluahun, Mandu, Malema, Luawa);
Tonkolili (Chiefdoms: Simiria, Kholifa Rowala, Mayeppoh and
Gbonkelenken);
Kono (Chiefdoms: Lei, Gbense, Tankoro and Fiama);
Port loko (Chiefdoms: Bureh, Kasseh, Koya and Kaffu Bullom).
Purpose of the Study Conduct policy-relevant research in communities, capturing primary data
and insights of women on root causes/drivers of conflict, women’s
exclusion from land rights and rights violations

Start & End Dates April 2026
Submission Report June 2026
2. Project Summary
Catalysing women’s leadership, this project engages marginalized women, their organizations (CSOs,
CBOs) and power holders in Kono, Kailahun Portloko and Tonkolili districts of Sierra Leone (SL) to drive
peaceful, gender transformative natural resource management (NRM) of land. Consistent with UNSCR1325
and associated WPS resolutions, the project addresses systemic barriers and discrimination that expose
women to conflict and undermines women's leadership and active participation in NRM, by using an
inclusive, participatory and gender transformative approach. Aligned with legislative land and Gender
Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) reforms (2022), the project tackles the direct and structural
violence facing women, to drive gender equality in land ownership in law, policy and in practice, promoting
inclusive processes that support women’s land rights and sustainable peace.
3. Objective & Purpose:  This research aims to generate actionoriented, evidencebased research that
informs policy and political dialogue on the Land Act—its implementation, gaps, and implications for
peace—and to lay the groundwork for structural reforms addressing the root causes of conflict and land
rights inequities. This research will support womenled recommendations aimed at removing barriers to the
full implementation of land laws, thereby strengthening women’s access to, control over, and benefit from
land as a critical pathway to economic empowerment.
Primary Objective
1. To assess how gendered drivers and impacts of conflict constrain women’s access to productive resources,
livelihoods, and economic participation, and to identify opportunities for strengthening their economic
resilience.
2. To examine the systemic barriers limiting women’s land and property rights, and to determine how
securing these rights can enhance their economic agency, incomegenerating capacity, and longterm
financial security.
3. To document the key violations experienced by women in relation to conflict and land, and to evaluate
how these violations undermine their asset ownership, livelihood stability, and overall economic
empowerment.
Secondary Objectives:
 To amplify women’s voices and their agency as experts on their lived realities.
 To uncover women-led solutions, community-based interventions and recommendations.

 To generate evidence-based insights for policymakers, civil society, and international actors to design
targeted interventions and legal/policy reforms.
4. Research Scope: The study will be conducted in all four project districts, covering:
A. Four (4) projectimplementation chiefdoms per district
 Kailahun: Njaluahun, Mandu, Malema, Luawa
 Tonkolili: Simiria, Kholifa Rowala, Mayeppoh, Gbonkelenken
 Kono: Lei, Gbense, Tankoro, Fiama
 Port Loko: Bureh, Kasseh, Koya, Kaffu Bullom
B. Four (4) nonproject chiefdoms per district
The consultant will identify four comparable chiefdoms per district where the project is not
currently implemented. These chiefdoms will serve as control areas to allow comparative
analysis of:
 differences in drivers of conflict;
 levels of rights violations;
 variations in women’s participation in land governance;
 differences in women’s economic empowerment outcomes between intervention and
nonintervention areas.
Selection must ensure representation of diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Christian
Aid will approve final chiefdom selections during the inception phase.
5. Methodology: The research study will employ a mixed method data gathering techniques and
interpretation against project indicators. In order to ensure that community voices are captured in the study,
it is desirable that at least one participatory methodology is included for data collection.
The consultant will provide a detailed sampling strategy that will be used for selecting respondents and
communities, including sample size calculation. The consultant will submit an inception report including a
work plan based on their understanding of the ToR and outlining their proposed methodology for the study.
A sampling strategy must be developed to ensure a 95% confidence interval level with a 5% margin of error.
In addition, the sample should include stratified representation by gender, age, disability status, ethnic group,
and socio-economic status to ensure that intersecting vulnerabilities are captured. The Christian Aid team
will review and decide whether to approve the sampling strategy or if any further modifications or changes
are needed. Triangulation of information gathered during the quantitative and qualitative data collection is
crucial in this study, with reflection on how the findings relate to the secondary documentation. The
triangulation process is encouraged to interact qualitative findings from FGDs and KIIs and be cross-
referenced with survey data to ensure validation of key trends and insights
The Methodology Should Include:
1. Secondary documentation/desk review: The consultant will identify secondary data for review for
this study (plans and previous similar study).

2. Primary Data Collection: Following the desk review, the consultant will design the research tools and
collect primary data. The study should employ both qualitative (FGDs & KIIs) and quantitative (survey –
digital tools only) approaches. In addition, the study should include community-led participatory
methodologies in order to put voices of the community at the centre of the study (this will be agreed on in
the inception report).
3. In-depth interviews: Qualitative data will be as important as the quantitative data as this helps provide
the ‘story’ behind the quantitative data. Focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII)
must be conducted. Best practice on holding interviews and focus group discussions with target respondents
should be exercised.
4. Disaggregation of data: All data, qualitative and quantitative collected through this exercise must be
disaggregated by sex, age, location and disability status. The disaggregation of data should also mention
socio-economic status where feasible.
Data Management:
The research study should combine a wide range of techniques, analytical tools and information sources to
allow triangulation of information and ensure impartiality in assessing the effect of the response. Ensuring
data quality and management is a primary responsibility of the consultant ranging from data collection,
storage, processing and disposal. We require a participatory approach where the consultant engages relevant
key stakeholders.
As part of the data cleaning process, consistency and validity checks are required and frequency runs on all
variables to check for any existing inconsistencies and outliers. All the necessary data corrections must be
done accordingly, and data analysis done following an analysis plan. Data analysis basically will involve
univariate and bivariate analysis on selected variables of interest with graphs and tables.
6. Key Deliverables
The consultant shall deliver a comprehensive and clearly structured research report, in English, that could
provide a basis for rational and justification for undertaking further partnerships with the government in
relation to gender norms and women empowerment on land governance.
As a minimum requirement, the document should elaborate and provide documented and specific answers to
the objectives in the ToR, the relevant background information and any other observations and information
which is deemed relevant in consultants’ reasonable opinion. All sources of data used in the preparation of
both documents shall be clearly identified. Where assumptions were made, these should be made explicit.
The Study Report should include a list of proposed strategies that Christian Aid and its partners should
consider delving into women empowerment initiatives and establish effective catalyst for policy and political
discourse on the land laws.

7. Quality Assurance:The consultant is responsible to ensure data validity, consistency and accuracy and to
submit reports written in good Standard English. If these standards are not met, the consultant will, at his/her
own expense, make the necessary amendments to bring the reports to the required standards.
Consultant Requirements: The consultant must:
 Be able to travel to project locations.

 Be able to conduct interviews/FGDs in local languages (or have a team member who can do so) and
have fluent written English.
 Ensure deploying women enumerators
Qualifications and Expertise
We are seeking dynamic individuals who are passionate about social justice and come with a range of
expertise. Below outlines the core competences and qualifications, we are seeking:
 Proven ability to apply an intersectional gender lens to diverse bodies of work on access to natural
resource management.
 Proven ability to conduct gender analyses/assessments and on natural resource management
 Experience designing practical, sector-specific gender integration tools, templates and toolkits.
 Expertise in having conducted research for policy development and advocacy.
 Strong understanding of, and personal commitment to, a rights-based approach to gender equality
and peace.
 Good knowledge of local context, analytical and problem-solving skills.
 Highly effective written and oral communication skills to address a wide variety of audiences.
 Willing to travel in-country as required for scope of project.
 An advanced university degree in gender and development, social policy, conflict analysis
8. Christian Aid/Partners Roles and Responsibilities
 CASL is responsible for full payment of the consultancy work pending satisfactory performance.
Where possible support in the mobilization of study participants including primary targets and other
stakeholders
 Review and approval of all related documents submitted by the consultant including technical
proposal, budget, inception report, data collection tools including questionnaire, comprehensive and
summarized reports, and other related documents.
Payment:
Payment will be made in two (2) tranches:
 First instalment of 70% of consultant fees upon submission of final inception report with data
collection tools of appropriate quality
 Second and final payment 30% upon submission of the following:
 i. One (1) final research report in English (electronic copy – 50 pages)
 ii. One (1) summary of the report in English, reflecting key findings and recommendations
(electronic copy- 2 pages).
 iii. Soft copy of fully “cleaned” datasets of all collected data at least in Excel or other version
9. Ethics and Safeguarding:
Christian Aid is committed to complying with privacy and data protection laws including the Data
Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Christian Aid’s
Data Protection Policy sets out the principles that Christian Aid applies when handling individual’s personal
information. Any consultants offered a contract with Christian Aid is expected to be GDPR compliant when
handling individuals’ personal information as well. Ethical data collection including confidentiality, consent,

thinking about gender and power relations (who is collecting data from whom), respectful work, health and
safety/security is a requirement.
In addition, Christian Aid has a Safeguarding Framework that includes Staff Code of Conduct and a Child
Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants
and to clarify the responsibilities of CA staff, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the
standards of behaviour expected of them. We have the responsibility to ensure that any persons hired, used
or consulted during the process are made familiar with the policies and commit to abide by them during
execution of this work. Consultants and team (including enumerators) offered a contract with Christian Aid
will be expected to sign the Safeguarding, Code of Conduct and Child Protection Policies as an appendix to
their contract. By doing so, consultants acknowledge that they have understood the contents of policies and
agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.
10. Proposals Development Guidelines:
Financial Information
Financial proposal (budget) detailing consultant(s) itemized fees, and administrative costs should be
submitted with the technical proposal.
Content of technical proposals
The technical proposal should include:
 A brief outline of the overall approach and proposed methodology to produce the identified
deliverables, along with an overall budget.
 An outline of the proposed team and their roles and responsibilities
 Alongside the proposal, please also submit electronically two pieces of previous work report
completed by the proposed consultant/team, and the Curriculum Vitae for the lead consultant.
Submission of Proposals (Procedure):
Consultant/firm will submit through the email addresses below their technical and financial proposal
application and other required documents to sierra-leone-info@christian-aid.org copying in
fkamara@christian-aid.org and MDimoh@christian-aid.org. Deadline for submissions is Close of Business
hour on the 10th April 2026. Please direct any questions or clarifications to the same email address above.
Address: Christian Aid Sierra Leone, 4B King Harman Road, CCSL Building Richmond Ground, Freetown.