TOR: Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) Due Diligence Assessment with Integrated Conflict Sensitivity Lens

1. Background and Context

The influx of Sudanese refugees into Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia, since April 2023 has placed significant strain on local resources and infrastructure. Ura Woreda currently hosts over 12,000 Sudanese refugees at the Ura Refugee camp, alongside a host population of approximately 76,432. An additional 18,721 asylum seekers are expected to be relocated to the site, further intensifying pressure on existing resources such as land, water, and other natural resources.

The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) is a national NGO with a mandate to defend women’s rights through legal aid, advocacy, and capacity building. As member of the consortium implementing HER project, EWLA is responsible for providing legal aid to gender-based violence (GBV) survivors, strengthening access to justice, and addressing housing, land, and property (HLP) rights particularly for women and girls in displacement-affected communities.

Housing, land, and property rights are central to protection, social cohesion, and sustainable solutions in displacement settings. In Ura settlement, tensions between refugees and host communities have begun to surface due to competition over scarce resources, including land for shelter, agriculture, and firewood collection. Women, particularly female-headed households from refugees and host community both, face heightened barriers to securing land rights due to discriminatory customary practices, lack of documentation, and exclusion from decision-making processes.

A comprehensive HLP due diligence assessment is required to ensure that all project activities are conflict-sensitive, do not exacerbate existing tensions, and proactively contribute to the protection of HLP rights especially for women and other vulnerable groups.

2. Rationale and Justification

The assessment is necessary to:

– Identify and mitigate potential HLP-related risks associated with project activities, including livelihood interventions, infrastructure development, and community engagement.

– Ensure that interventions do not inadvertently contribute to land disputes or exacerbate tensions between refugee and host communities. – Identify HLP right protection challenges that women are facing in the project area to inform the project’s economic recovery activities.

– Provide EWLA and consortium partners with actionable recommendations to integrate HLP rights protection into programming, with a specific focus on gender equality and conflict sensitivity.

– Fulfill the project’s commitment to a do no harm approach and align with international standards, including the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Framework on Durable Solutions, the Global Compact on Refugees, and Ethiopia’s Refugee Proclamation No. 1110/2019.

– Support the project’s goal of empowering women and girls by identifying barriers to HLP access and proposing gender-transformative approaches to secure women’s land rights.

3. Assessment Objectives

Overall Objective:

The overall objective is to conduct a comprehensive Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) due diligence assessment in Ura refugee settlement and surrounding host communities that integrates gender and conflict sensitivity lenses, in order to inform safe, equitable, conflict‑sensitive, and sustainable implementation of the Her HER project, with particular emphasis on protecting and advancing the HLP rights of women and other vulnerable groups.

Specific Objectives:

1. Analyze HLP Governance and Legal Frameworks: To identify and analyze formal, informal, customary, administrative, and legal HLP governance systems operating in Ura Refugee Settlement and adjacent host communities, and assess their implications for refugees and host populations, particularly women and other vulnerable individuals.

2. Assess HLP related Risks: Identify and assess HLP-related risks—including land disputes, eviction risks, tenure insecurity, and gender-based discrimination—that may arise from or be exacerbated by project activities.

3. Analyse Conflict Dynamics: Examine how competition over land, water and natural resources as well as services contributes to conflict dynamics between and within refugee and host communities, with a specific attention to the role of gender, age, and displacement status.

4. Evaluate Women’s Access to HLP Rights: Assess barriers and opportunities for women particularly female-headed households, GBV survivors, and unaccompanied women to access, use, and control land and property.

5. Review Existing Dispute Resolution and Grievance Mechanisms: To analyze existing land‑related grievance, dispute resolution, and complaint mechanisms, including their accessibility, effectiveness, and inclusiveness for women, refugees, and other marginalized groups.

6. Provide Actionable Recommendations: Develop practical, context-specific recommendations for EWLA and consortium partners to integrate HLP due diligence and conflict sensitivity into project planning, implementation, monitoring, and grievance mechanisms.

4. Scope of Work

The assessment will cover Ura Refugee Settlement and adjacent host community areas (Akuda Kebele and surrounding villages). The scope includes:

– Geographic Focus: Ura Woreda, Benishangul-Gumuz Region.

– Target Groups: Sudanese refugees (with attention to women, female-headed households, and those at-risk of GBV ); host community members (including women, youth, and community leaders); local authorities (kebele and woreda level); humanitarian actors; and traditional and religious leaders.

– Thematic Focus:

– HLP governance and tenure systems (customary, administrative, legal).

– Land use and allocation mechanisms for refugees and hosts.

– Land-related grievances, disputes, and conflict resolution mechanisms.

– Gender dynamics in HLP access, control, and decision-making.

– Linkages between HLP insecurity, GBV, and protection risks.

– Potential HLP impacts of proposed project activities (e.g., livelihood interventions, social cohesion/peace building, communal infrastructure, women’s safe spaces).

– Existing complaint and feedback mechanisms, its functionality and future and future improvement related to HLP issues.

5. Key Questions

The assessment will seek to answer the following guiding questions:

– What formal and informal HLP governance systems exist in the target area, and how do they interact?

– How is land allocated to refugees and host community members? What are the tenure arrangements?

– What are the main HLP-related disputes or tensions, and how are they currently resolved?

– How do conflict dynamics intersect with HLP access and competition over natural resources?

– What barriers do women face in accessing, using, and controlling land and property? How do these barriers differ by marital status, household headship, and displacement status?

– How might proposed project activities (e.g., establishment of women’s groups, livelihood support, infrastructure) affect HLP rights and social cohesion?

– What measures can be put in place to ensure project interventions are HLP-sensitive and conflict-sensitive?

– What opportunities exist to strengthen women’s HLP rights through legal aid, advocacy, and community engagement? Etc

6. Methodology

The assessment will employ a participatory, mixed-methods approach, integrating conflict sensitivity and gender analysis throughout. The following methods will be used:

– Desk Review: Analysis of relevant legal frameworks (Ethiopian Refugee Proclamation, land laws), policy documents, UNHCR reports, previous HLP assessments, project documents, and conflict analyses.

– Key Informant Interviews (KIIs): Semi-structured interviews with:

– Woreda and kebele administration officials

– Land administration and justice sector actors (courts, land office)

– Refugees Central Committees (RCC)

– Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) representatives

– UNHCR and humanitarian partners

– Traditional leaders, elders, and religious leaders

– Women’s group leaders and community-based organization representatives

– Consortium partner staff (DRC, MTI, MCMDO)

– Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): Separate FGDs with (2 per each group):

– Refugee women (including female-headed households, GBV survivors)

– Refugee men

– Host community women

– Host community men

– Youth groups (refugee and host)

– Community Mapping Exercises: Participatory mapping of land use, resource access points, and areas of tension or dispute.

– Observation: Site visits to key locations, including the refugee settlement, host community villages, agricultural areas, water points, and proposed project sites.

Conflict Sensitivity and Ethical Considerations:

– All activities will be guided by the principle of do no harm. Enumerators must be trained on conflict sensitivity, gender sensitivity, basics of protection, and ethical data collection, including informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of participants.

– Special care will be taken to avoid exacerbating tensions between refugees and host communities. Separate FGDs will be held where appropriate.

– Information on GBV and sensitive protection concerns will be handled with strict confidentiality and referrals to available services where needed.

7. Deliverables

The consultant(s) or assessment team will produce the following deliverables:

1. Inception Report: A detailed work plan, methodology, data collection tools, and a timeline, submitted within one week of commencement.

2. Draft Assessment Report: A comprehensive draft report for review by EWLA and consortium partners, including:

– Executive summary

– Background and context

– Methodology

– Findings (structured according to the assessment objectives and key questions)

– Conflict sensitivity analysis

– Gender analysis

– Conclusions

– Actionable recommendations (prioritized and categorized by stakeholder and project phase) …. etc

3. Validation Workshop: Presentation and validation of findings and recommendations with EWLA, consortium partners, and key stakeholders.

4. Final Assessment Report: A finalized report incorporating feedback from the validation workshop, with clear, practical recommendations for programming.

5. Summary Brief: A 2–4-page summary of key findings and recommendations for internal and external dissemination.

8. Timeline

The assessment is expected to be completed within 6–8 weeks from the date of contract signing.

 

Location: Ura Refugee Settlement and surrounding host communities (Akuda Kebele and adjacent areas), Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia

Lead Organization: Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA)

Consortium Partners: Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Medical Teams International (MTI), Mothers and Children Multi-sectoral Development Organization (MCMDO)

Project: Hope, Empowerment and Resilience (H.E.R): Sudanese & Ethiopian Women and Girls Leading Recovery and Change

Project Donor: Agence Française de Développement (AFD)

Date: April 2026

9. Team Composition and Qualifications

The assessment will be conducted by a qualified team with expertise in HLP rights, conflict sensitivity, gender analysis, and humanitarian contexts. EWLA may lead the assessment with support from consortium partners or engage an external consultant. The team should include:

– Team Leader/HLP Specialist: Advanced degree in law, land administration, development studies, or related field; minimum 7 years of experience in HLP assessments, preferably in displacement or conflict-affected settings; experience in Ethiopia.

– Conflict Sensitivity/Gender Specialist: Advanced degree in peace and conflict studies, gender studies, or related field; demonstrated experience in applying conflict sensitivity and gender analysis to humanitarian or development programming.

– Field Enumerators: Local enumerators (preferably including women) with experience in qualitative data collection, fluent in local languages (e.g., Gumuz, Amharic, Arabic), and trained on conflict sensitivity and ethical research practices.

10. Roles and Responsibilities

EWLA- Lead the assessment, coordinate with consortium partners, engage with local authorities and communities, ensure quality assurance, and lead the validation process. |

DRC- Provide technical support on conflict sensitivity, protection, and HLP due diligence tools; facilitate linkages with relevant coordination platforms.

MTI / MCMDO- Support community entry, provide contextual insights, and facilitate access to target communities. |

Local Authorities (RRS, Woreda Administration)- Provide necessary permissions and support for field access; participate in validation workshop.

UNHCR – Share relevant data and coordinate with the assessment team as appropriate.

11. Budget

A detailed budget will be developed based on the proposed methodology, team composition, and timeline.

12. Reporting and Coordination

The assessment team will report to the EWLA Project Lead, with regular updates to the consortium’s Project Management Unit (PMU) and Technical Working Group.