Terms of Reference End of Project Evaluation for Empowering Women, Youth, and Marginalized Groups for Inclusive Governance and Peace in Sierra Leone Project

Terms of Reference

End of Project Evaluation for Empowering Women, Youth, and Marginalized Groups for Inclusive Governance and Peace in Sierra Leone Project

Our Program in Sierra Leone

Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone (TDS-SL) is a registered non-profit peacebuilding organization in Sierra Leone. TDS-SL envisions a peaceful, prosperous, and well-governed society where conflicts are resolved peacefully and do not escalate into violence or war. Its mission is to empower communities, groups, and individuals to promote peace, actively participate in public life, hold duty bearers accountable, and contribute to nation-building through media engagement, civic participation, and community-driven initiatives. Through its work, TDS-SL strives to strengthen democratic governance, social cohesion, and inclusive development throughout Sierra Leone. TDS-SL’s primary areas of engagement include: (1) strengthening inclusive governance at the local level; (2) supporting peace and conflict prevention, particularly as they relate to the worsening social and political divides across the country; (3) strengthening a culture of public and democratic debate and inclusive political processes; and (4) facilitating access to reliable, timely, and unbiased information, that empowers the voices of all, via the production of media programming and engagement with our network of media partners and local CSOs. Our work seeks to amplify the most marginalized voices, including women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) as well as engage rural communities that are often sidelined from public and social life.

The Project

Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone (TDS-SL), in partnership with the 50/50 Group and Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) successfully implemented a multi-year (2024-2026) Irish Aid-funded project titled “Empowering Women, Youth, and Marginalized Groups for Inclusive Governance and Peace in Sierra Leone’ which aims at strengthening women’s participation in democratic and inclusive governance, accountability, peacebuilding, and development in Sierra Leone. Building on previous Irish Aid-supported initiatives ‘’Women Unite! Strengthening Women-led Social Cohesion and Accountability in Post-Election Sierra Leone’’ 2018 – 2021, ‘’Strengthening the Role of Women for Inclusive Governance and a Peaceful Society,’’2022-2024, the project was implemented across Port Loko, Kambia, Tonkolili, Karene, and Moyamba districts.

The project’s target beneficiaries are Women Groups (WCSGs), Women-led Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), young people, Male Champions, local journalists, partner radio stations, Traditional and Religious leaders, elected Leaders, local stakeholders. Throughout the implementation period, the project engaged women’s groups, male champions, journalists and partner radio stations, traditional and religious leaders, local councils and other stakeholders, while ensuring the active inclusion of youth and persons with disabilities.

The project’s focus has been on promoting women’s representation in decision-making processes, strengthening citizen participation in budget transparency and accountable governance, access to information and enhancing collaboration between women’s groups and stakeholders, deepening peace and social cohesion, advancing gender-responsive policies, women’s socio-economic and political empowerment and strengthening citizens-stakeholder dialogues and platforms for improved service delivery.

The overall aim of the project is to strengthen women’s role in promoting democratic, accountability and inclusive governance in Sierra Leone. This overall aim is supported by the following corresponding objectives and expected results:

How to Apply:

The application file must include:

• A technical offer of maximum 8 pages which will include:
• A detailed methodology, including the main research questions;
• A short proposal for the organization of data collection and supervision of enumerator/ teams;
• An updated curriculum vitae of the Evaluation Coordinator of up to 4 pages;
• In annex: 2 examples of studies/qualitative research conducted for other organizations as principal investigators.
• A detailed financial offer which will include:
• Consultant fees;
• Costs related to the recruitment of accelerated field data collection teams;
• Other items deemed necessary.

Interested qualified and experienced person, groups of persons or firms must apply on or before the 6th July 2026 to talkingdrumstudio@tds-sierraleone.org outlining availability in line with the approximate timeline.