Announcing: Sybil Chidiac, new Truelift Steering Committee member

Sybil Chidiac

We are very pleased to welcome Sybil Chidiac, current Senior Technical Advisor Learning and Knowledge Management of Access Africa programs with CARE USA, to the Truelift Steering Committee.

Welcome Sybil!

Anne Hastings, former CEO of Fonkoze and current Truelift Steering Committee member, comments on Sybil’s new role with Truelift:

“Sybil is a great choice! She is a dynamic, strong thinker. Very committed, terrific individual.”

Chris Dunford discusses what Sybil will bring to the Steering Committee:

“Sybil brings the perspective of the large International NGOs to the deliberations of the Steering Committee. She also connects Truelift to the vibrant savings group movement in Africa and elsewhere – a form of financial service we include in our broad notion of microfinance and, more generally, social enterprise.”

Sybil Chidiac has over 12 years of practice as an economic development specialist with expertise in designing and implementing learning and knowledge management practices and processes as well as project management for savings led microfinance. Her work over the years has focused on designing, implementing, evaluating and redesigning programs that bring financial services for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa through savings led microfinance as well as connecting the informal to formal financial products and services through mobile platforms.

Sybil is a proven leader in building practitioner networks, establishing and maintaining partnerships and facilitating the interchange of knowledge and experiences as well as achieving quality results for innovations in savings led microfinance programming through effective project management and developing technologically enhanced solutions for formal financial inclusion.

Sybil originally joined CARE in 1998. Based in Dar es Salaam under CARE’s Access Africa program, Sybil serves as the Senior Technical Advisor to multi-country programs focusing on CARE’s innovative Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) methodology. She pioneered and leads the VSLA program, which implements a dedicated learning strategy as well as collaboration practices among global practitioners and external partners to analyze monitoring data, bring forth evidence of programming outcomes and apply lessons learned to reinforce program quality. Currently, Sybil designs key innovations for linkages to occur between rural clients and formal financial institutions, primarily with mobile technologies as a delivery channels. Sybil also provides regular program oversight and technical assistance to the UNCDF funded Microlead program in Tanzania and Ghana, as well as the Barclays Banking on Change program across 5 countries. Both programs focus on financial linkages and mobile technology solutions for product and service delivery.

In 2007, Sybil managed the Building More Effective Learning Organizations USAID grant for CARE, creating an innovative path for learning and knowledge sharing practices and processes to be implemented for the first time in economic development programming. Her work managing and implementing this project ultimately set the stage for learning and knowledge management systems across CARE USA’s program division.

Sybil holds a Masters degree in International Community Economic Development (MSc) from Southern New Hampshire University and has worked in over seven countries. Sybil currently lives in Msasani, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and originally hails from Atlanta, Georgia, USA.