The 2022 USAID Alumni Association of the Year Award Goes to… Dr. Taroub Harb Faramand!
Early in her career, while working as a doctor in refugee camps and leading USAID health projects, Dr. Taroub Harb Faramand discovered the strength and vulnerabilities of people and realized something important: it takes much more than health care to keep people healthy.
During her time working for USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission, this belief and deep understanding was further strengthened and propelled her career forward. In recognition of her impactful and lasting work improving outcomes and advancing localization, diversity, equity, and inclusion around the world, Dr. Taroub Harb Faramand received the 2022 USAID Alumna of the Year Award for International Service.
The USAID Alumni Association designed the award to honor USAID alumni who forged new paths and made lasting contributions, both at home and abroad, following their post-USAID service. Since the Award’s inception in 2014, the prestigious award has been bestowed on a total of 17 total alumni. The Association only selects individuals whose work has been truly exemplary and contributed to lasting, meaningful change around the world–which perfectly reflects Dr. Faramand’s work over the last few decades.
Dr. Faramand has dedicated her career to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the development sector both domestically and abroad and in a multitude of sectors, including health, land tenure, electricity, water, education, wildlife conservation, the rule of law, and agriculture. Early on, she served as a Senior Vice President for Global Health at HOPE The People-to-People Health Foundation and as a Director of the global USAID-funded Extending Servicing Delivery and CATALYST projects.
Throughout all these experiences, and more, Dr. Faramand recognized a critical need: “I saw quality improvement, gender equity and social inclusion, and social behavior change initiatives failing to address the needs of marginalized and commonly excluded populations.” To address this issue, and better serve these communities and amplify their voices, Dr. Faramand established her company WI-HER, LLC in 2011.
“I believe that investing in gender and social equality is the most effective, sustainable way to achieve economic and social development and improve outcomes in health, energy, education, and rule of law, to name a few,” she shares. “With the mission to ‘break barriers and reach further,’ WI-HER supports local partners, communities, and individuals to identify and implement creative solutions to development challenges, enabling communities to achieve sustained results, and improve outcomes.”
Dr. Faramand developed the innovative and results-based methodology known as iDARE. She designed it to enhance localization efforts and address inequities by supporting individuals to be at the heart and in the driver’s seat of designing and delivering mutually inclusive, locally-led solutions that do no harm. Over the past 11 years, iDARE has been implemented in over 35 countries.
Today, with Dr. Faramand at the helm, WI-HER has a team of over 48 diverse dedicated professionals who focus on localization, capacity strengthening, gender equity, gender-based violence, social inclusion and resettlements, human trafficking prevention and response, project assessment and evaluations, strategic planning, policy reform, advocacy, and program design. And it all started with her time at USAID. Of which she says, “USAID gave me incredible opportunities to grow and the tools to be a highly versatile, proactive, decisive, results-oriented and people-centered leader, with strong focus on mentorship and building capacity of my staff and partners.”
Congratulations, Dr. Faramand! Thank you for your dedication, leadership, perseverance, and determination to make this world a more inclusive place for all persons, so that they have the opportunities to live the lives they want and aspire toward. You inspire your team, and everyone who has had the chance to work with you.
Dr. Faramand received the USAID Alumni Association of the Year Award on October 28, 2022.
With thanks and appreciation, The WI-HER staff
