Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilient infrastructure

Role: Research assistant, Sierra Leone
Project: Evaluating FreetownTheTreetown: community ownership, financing and voluntary
Affiliation: Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre
ORCID ID: N/A
Email: Wullariemusafm@gmail.com

Musa FM Wullarie is a community researcher and development practitioner based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. His work focuses on participatory urban research, community engagement, and locally driven approaches to water management and development in informal settlements. Musa brings extensive field experience in community-based research methods and plays a key role in facilitating collaboration between researchers, local organisations, and community stakeholders.

Musa currently serves as a Lead Researcher with the Water for All project and as a Community Engagement Specialist with the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP). In these roles, he supports the design and implementation of community-based research, including survey development, field team coordination, and participatory data collection. He has significant experience conducting community mapping, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and community consultations, contributing locally grounded insights to urban planning and development initiatives.

He has collaborated on more than 20 research and development projects in Freetown related to water access, urban resilience, and community-led planning. Musa has also worked as a community data collector, facilitator and co-researcher with the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC), where he participated in major international research collaborations and urban studies initiatives. Through these roles, he has served as a key liaison between local communities and international research institutions, including University College London, Njala University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Musa has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Sector Management. His work emphasises participatory methods, inclusive development, and strengthening community voices in research and policy processes.