Dalia Traboulsi

About the Candidate

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS
·     Results-driven humanitarian, resilience and philanthropy professional with experience in managing complex livelihoods and food security projects, including Entrepreneurship, Grants support, Agricultural Value Chains, Cash for work, Emergency rapid responses, and Employability programs such as youth Job consultation, Career Orientation, Adult Education, Soft and Life Skills Training and workshops.

·     Proficient in applying creative organizational leadership skills and problem-solving and negotiation skills to design and execute complex multi sector projects, consistently achieving team and organizational objectives.

·     Advanced competencies in program design, portfolio management, philanthropy and grant management, from conception and proposal development to negotiation, funding, and major gift fundraising.

·     Dedicated to promoting gender equity, resilience, and sustainability to achieve economic and social development.

·     Extensive expertise in the entire program delivery phases, including initiation, project planning, implementation, monitoring and project evaluations, and project completion.

·     Skilled in policy and procedures development to ensure successful activity realization and sustainable outcomes.

·     Proven Strategic Planner with both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, even in emergency contexts.

·     Proficient at achieving project goals and objectives collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, overseeing program elements, and proactively mitigating risks.

·     Exceptional team building abilities, fostering team cohesion, shared vision, and goal attainment.

·     Experience in designing and rolling-out MEAL systems and capacity strengthening of staff and partners on MEAL.

·     Strong track record in supervising and supporting implementing partners, enhancing their capacities, and cultivating strategic partnerships.

·     High expertise in project budgeting, forecasting, logistics and procurement, and financial modeling.

·     Proficient in market research, assessments, and outcome analysis.

 

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
·     Proficient computer skills: Google tools, and MS Office 365, including Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

·     Fluent in English, French, and Arabic (Native language), with exceptional verbal and written communication skills.

·     Ability to work independently or with teams and work well under pressure using time management skills.

·     Excellent interpersonal skills, detail-oriented, strong decision-making, strategic and analytic skills.

·     Positive and ethical attitude, with strong accountability, confidentiality, flexibility, and prioritization skills.

 

 

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Bilingual Grant Team Lead, Canadian Red Cross                                                     Oct 2022 – Sep 2024
Tech-savvy supervisor and dynamic problem-solver in charge of leading a remote team of Grants Officers to administer, monitor, and support grant implementation under The Community Services Recovery Fund program; a $400 million investment from the Government of Canada to support community service organizations.

·     Delivered strategic oversight and stewardship in managing projects, by training and managing high-performing teams, fostering a balance between program requirements and grantees’ needs.

·     Conduct training sessions for newly recruited Grant Officers, ensuring thorough understanding of program guidelines, emphasizing mentorship and coaching capabilities.

·     Cultivated a supportive environment through efficient knowledge sharing practices, transparent communication pathways, proactive dispute management system to resolve conflicts, and guidance coaching oriented approach.

·     Directed all granting phases; applications, assessments, escalations, selection, contract agreement, payment, project review and monitoring, direction and control, and handover.

·     Guided and supported the team achieve 3500 assessments, 1800 grants review, 1800 progress reports evaluation, and 950 escalations surpassing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

·     Utilized Results-based Management tools to monitor project progress against objectives, demonstrating resilience under pressure and the ability to motivate teams in unpredictable situations.

 

Program Manager, CARE INTERNATIONAL in LEBANON                                       Nov 2018 – Dec 2021
Managed major gifts projects including AFDAL I and AFDAL II agricultural projects funded by World Food Program (WFP) under BMZ, NAWAT funded by BMZ, and Emergency Response projects funded by CARE France. With budgets ranging from 140,000 USD to 3,230,000 USD and with impacts on refugee and host communities.

·     Implemented multiple Value Chains Food security and Livelihoods projects in 3 districts, exceeding targets by 10% despite the contextual and pandemic challenges by mobilizing all implementation teams’ capacities, introducing new activities, and improving the outreach techniques.

·     Provided guidance and mentoring to create productive multi-disciplinary teams with high level of perfectionism, commitment, motivation, and quality orientation.

·     Organized and provided logistical support for COVID-19 emergency response, distributing PPE kits, sanitization tools, and food items to 5000 individuals over 6 months to tackle food insecurity and foster self-sufficiency.

·     Known for engaging local stakeholders and communities in developing creative problem-solving processes, ensuring solutions are relevant and aligned with community needs and project scope.

·     Establish strategic relationships with implementing partners transforming them to strategical partners by developing teams’ spirits, improving mutual trust, providing technical assistance, building capacities, providing feedback, tailoring project plan, monitoring implementation procedures, and building on each partner’s expertise.

·     Led and coordinate the development of 3 Market Assessments, 5 research, and 2 Full technical and BDS curricula through literature review and other means, enhancing project delivery quality through participatory approaches.

·     Transformed reporting processes for real-time updates. Enabled dynamic communication of admin details, progress, and impact with compelling visuals, fostering transparency for both internal stakeholder and donors.

·     Ensured oversight of project data, organizational learning outcomes, logic models, KPIs, and achievements, emphasizing evidence-backed progress reports and ensuring excellent database management.

·     Led the development of multiple proposals using fundraising best practices, securing a total budget of over 6M USD for development projects, strengthening organizational skills and expanding program reach.

·     Proactively addressed areas for improvement and devised mitigation strategies, fostering trust and transparency and enhancing relationship building with key donors like WFP, EU, and German BMZ.

 

DANISH REFUGEE COUNSIL (DRC), Lebanon
Area Program Manager                                                                                                Aug 2017 – Sep 2018
Manage projects funded by WFP, DANIDA, and LEADERS MADAD with budgets ranging from 90,000 USD to 3,138,000 USD and with impacts on refugee and host communities.

·     Established a Livelihoods department in 3 different districts while creating productive teams’ spirits, high level of perfectionism, passion, committed devotion, motivation, and quality orientation.

·     Led the LEADERS project from a situation of delay to one of overachievement against its targets by increasing resources and expanding implementation areas while maintaining high program quality by graduating 900 trainees from Vocational, financial literacy, and Life Skills trainings in a significant period of 12 months.

·     Re-designed a BDS grants project to develop strategies to provide tailor-made individual coaching for start-ups to ensure resilience, self-sufficiency, and the best possible impact and the most effective value for money procedures.

·     Innovated a new implementation method for employability programs to reach consistent employment rates by involving the private sector from the capacity building phase of the training to the actual employment phase which increased the retention rate to 30% compared to the project’s targeted percentage of 10%.

·     Proven capacity to engage communities throughout the project cycle, ensuring that programs are locally informed, culturally relevant, and community-driven for long-term impact.

 

Senior Job Counsellor and Training Officer                                                             Sep 2016 – July 2017
·     Participated in the conception of a multi-sectorial outreach tool using a community-based vulnerability assessment including socioeconomic, protection, household, shelter, coping mechanism, and competencies-based evaluations.

·     Developed different execution procedures, monitoring and evaluation systems, and quality control tools that were developed from scratch to be implemented and harmonized through all Livelihood projects.

·     Provided apprenticeships and employment opportunities for 332 refugees and host community beneficiaries under the LEADERS project; and secured permanent employment for 100 out of them.

·     Provided group consulting and facilitation for refugees on decent work condition, interview and CV writing skills.

·     Took on the challenge of the community outreach in an unfamiliar area and was able to alter the ongoing process towards success and process improvement in less than 6 months by efficiently reallocating resources, creating a new network, contracting new partners, and engaging community mobilizers.

 

Economics and English language Teacher                                                               Dec 2013 – May 2016

Human Resources Manager/ Accountant, Assra3 Offshore Sal, Lebanon              Oct 2011 – Feb 2014
·     Established an HR department from scratch, developed internal rules, regulations, handbooks, evaluation procedures, and salaries scales. Promoted equality and diversity as part of the culture of the company.

·     Recruited staff by developing job descriptions, preparing job adverts, processing application forms, shortlisting, interviewing, and selecting candidates.

·     Change management: Altered the culture and mentality of the organization from project-oriented to skill-oriented approach by offering intensive training sessions to all staff on every type of drawing in a way to create one team ready for any challenge.

·     Ventured innovative solutions for different projects: Provided the idea for an automated HR management system to perform all HR and Accounting tasks with a game interface.

 

Human Resources Manager, TLS Contact (Visa France), Lebanon                        Jan 2010 – Aug 2010
·     A key member of the team who launched TLScontact Lebanon, a multi-cultural organisation, participated in the registration, strategy planning, and equipment of the company before activities were launched.

·     Co-planned and implemented a strategy that doubled the productivity in 1 month from receiving 10 applications per employee per day to 16 applications and by rotating team members through different positions and duties.

·     Managed diverse HR procedures and functions: Full-cycle staff recruitment, evaluation and performance management, Training and capacity building, conduct, conflicts resolution, benefits administration.

 

Administrative Assistant, Future Movement, Lebanon                                              Jul 2007 – Nov 2009
Handled major rapid emergency response projects financially with budgets ranging from 1,000,000 USD to 6,000,000 USD and with impacts on 30.000 displaced Palestinians, 10,000 displaced Lebanese due to internal combats.

·     Provided daily support for refugees, distributing cash aid and essential items, while also preventing conflicts by implementing effective customer service practices and clear communication of project services.

·     Launched/audited/supervised initiatives to replace the direct purchase of food items by daily meals deliveries which reduced the costs by 30% allowing additional assistance to a wider geographical area.

·     Hired/allocated/dismissed volunteers; engineers, administrative staff, health inspectors to examine the real/live situation of the refugees’ livelihoods and shelters ensuring timely and effective surge capacity.

 

Accountant, Alameddine Trading, Lebanon                                                                Oct 2006 – Jul 2007
 

EDUCATION
Master of Business Administration MBA                                                                                  2013 – 2014

Université Libano-Française, Lebanon.

Masters Diplôma, Major International Management                                                                 2010 – 2011

University Of Bologna, Italy (Exchange Student – Erasmus Mundus)

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance                                                                         2001 – 2006

Lebanese University of social sciences, Lebanon

Canadian equivalent of the bachelor’s and the master’s degrees as assessed by World Educational Services in Ontario.

 

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
C.O.R.T (Cognitive Research Trust) (HRD Academy UK), 2008

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) by Dr. Ahmad ElFiky (The Canadian Training Center), 2009

The Art of Decision Making (The Canadian Center), 2009

Strategic Planning (ACST), 2010

The management styles (CEGOS / Lingos), 2018

Conflict Resolution, PSEA, and Do No Harm (CARE International), 2020

Emergency Preparedness Training (CARE International), 2019

Hostile Environment Awareness Training HEAT safety training (saferedge), 2021

Report Writing Course (Formatech), 2021

Advanced level Microsoft Excel Course (Formatech), 2021

Project Management PMP® Exam Preparation Course (Formatech), 2021

Lean Six Sigma: Define and Measure Tools (PMI® Registered Education Provider), 2022

Sustainability as an Innovation Opportunity (LinkedIn), 2022

Project Management Skills for Leaders (PMI® Registered Education Provider), 2022

Project Management PMP® Toolkit to Success (World Skills Employment through Pojerra), 2022

AI Fundamentals (IBM SkillsBuild), 2024

Data Analytics Foundation (IBM SkillsBuild), 2024