Leila Shamsaifar is an independent consultant. She provides technical and policy advice on land governance, supports the design and facilitation of capacity development initiatives and is currently enrolled in a training to become a certified mediator for multi-track peace mediation.

Prior to that, she contributed to the negotiation process and the roll out of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) as a Land Tenure Officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization at headquarters and in Sierra Leone. In this capacity, she was the focal point at headquarters for transversal support to the 17 country European Union Land Governance Programme, provided technical support to countries and designed and implemented capacity development initiatives and products. In Sierra Leone, she was responsible for the start-up and implementation of a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder project focusing on land, fisheries and forest tenure and cross-cutting issues such as the legal framework and grievance mechanisms. In order to ensure a sustainable basis for the implementation of the project, she contributed to the development of an institutional framework whose secretariat is now hosted by the Ministry of Lands and is the entry point for all tenure-related projects in Sierra Leone. The comprehensive assessment of the Sierra Leone National Land Policy, which she undertook, contributed to the inclusion of over 60 paragraphs in the endorsed policy.