Sima Kanaan, MA

Senior Development Consultant (Freelance)

Sima has more than thirty years of experience in development, mainly managing complex programs aimed at strengthening institutions for improved service delivery and empowering citizens and marginalized communities. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2000, Ms. Kanaan worked for ten years with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where she last held the position of Deputy Resident Representative in Georgia.  During the twenty years of working with the World Bank, she held various technical and managerial positions including being the Deputy Country Manager for the World Bank’s program in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  In Jordan, she managed programs to support the needs of Syrian refugees and host communities, including being seconded to the United Nations Refugee Organization (UNHCR) where she was the Senior Development Advisor for the Regional Director. Sima’s other roles included strategy development, coordination with stakeholders, fundraising and management of multi-donor trust funds, and sector diagnostics. Her areas of expertise include working in conflict-affected situations, social accountability, community-based/local development, and NGO service delivery.

Sima has lived and worked in many countries including Jordan, Kuwait, United States, Yemen, Georgia, and Palestine. She has contributed to several World Bank publications (The Mobility of Displaced Populations – An Economic and Social Analysis, 2018; Twenty-Seven Months – Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis, 2003; Fifteen Months – Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis, March). She was the main author of The Role and Performance of Palestinian NGOs in Health, Education and Agriculture, December 2006. 

Sima has earned her M.A. in International Relations/Social Development from the John’s Hopkins University School of International Studies (Washington DC, 1990) and her B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College (California, 1987). She is the mother of two daughters.