Karim Shaaban, IOM, CIMA, CAE has led and supported international development programs in the areas of economic growth, democracy, governance, and stabilization in conflict and transitional environments for over 20 years. He been a principal member of projects funded by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID OTI), U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL). Mr. Shaaban has extensive experience in developing effective partnerships with, and enhancing the capacity of, civil society organizations representing a variety of constituents as well as parliamentary staff and parliamentarians.
Mr. Shaaban began his career working with a member of the U.S. Congress on constituency engagement and services. He then transitioned to a reputable think tank based in Washington, DC, the Middle East Institute, where he focused on Middle East and North Africa programming. Mr. Shaaban later supported democracy and governance development programs in Iraq implemented by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) both from NDI’s headquarters and later from the field. He also worked for a US-based national advocacy organization in Washington, D.C, the Arab American Institute, to manage and support political mobilization campaigns, demographic research, educational programs, fundraising and advocacy initiatives. Prior to the civil war in Yemen, Mr. Shaaban served USAID OTI’s programming in Yemen as a Senior Transition Advisor throughout the Yemeni National Dialogue process. For the past 7 years, he has been serving as resident Program Director for the Center for International Private Enterprise’s (CIPE) sub-regional office in Jordan which supports CIPE’s programming in Yemen and the Levant sub-region.
Mr. Shaaban is fluent in both Arabic and English and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Seton Hall University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Chambers of Commerce Foundation’s Institute of Organizational Management and holds the credential of (IOM), he is certified by the Global Innovation Management Institute as an Innovation Management Associate (CIMA) and holds the prestigious credential of Certified Association Executive (CAE), which is designated by the American Society of Association Executives.