Description Lily S. Beshawred is the Founder and Managing Director of DaRe2 – Empower, Ignite, Transform, a mission-driven strategic advisory and capacity-building firm focused on strengthening local institutions and translating vision into sustainable impact. With more than 25 years of experience across international development, policy, and strategy, Lily brings a deep understanding of how institutions lead, adapt, and perform in complex and evolving environments.

Lily’s career spans senior leadership and advisory roles within the U.S. Government, multilateral institutions, and international development programs, with extensive experience across Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, including Ethiopia, Somalia, and India. Throughout her career, she has supported governments, donors, and implementing partners on strategy development, policy alignment, and program effectiveness—consistently emphasizing institutional capacity strengthening, local ownership, and long-term sustainability.

She has served as a Senior Development Advisor to the U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank, where she worked closely on complex, multi-country portfolios and advised on issues including concessional financing, trust fund reform, and donor coordination. In addition, Lily held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she supported large, high-risk, and politically complex programs and initiatives spanning fragility, gender, youth, climate, and private sector engagement. Across these roles, she was frequently called upon to bridge global policy priorities with operational realities on the ground.

A defining feature of Lily’s leadership has been her experience leading and managing large, diverse, and multidisciplinary teams across regions, cultures, and institutional settings. She has overseen complex portfolios, guided teams through periods of transition, and built collaborative environments that balance accountability with learning. Her leadership style is grounded in clarity, inclusion, and results—ensuring teams remain effective even in uncertain or shifting contexts.

Having worked through multiple organizational reforms, restructuring processes, and shifts in strategic direction, Lily brings deep expertise in change management. She understands how institutions navigate disruption—whether driven by policy change, funding realignments, or organizational transformation—and how to support leaders and teams through these transitions while maintaining focus, morale, and performance. This experience directly informs DaRe2’s approach to helping organizations adapt and thrive amid change.

Through DaRe2, Lily integrates her experience in strategy, monitoring and evaluation, resource optimization, leadership development, and applied training to support governments, local organizations, donors, and private sector partners. DaRe2 operates as a platform model, combining founder-led strategic oversight with a Core Advisory Council of senior experts across sectors. This structure enables tailored, context-specific solutions while remaining agile, rigorous, and compliant in diverse operating environments.

Lily holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a focus on Africa, a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution and Regional Studies, and a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. She is deeply committed to mentoring emerging leaders—particularly women and youth—and to contributing thoughtfully to global conversations on localization, institutional strengthening, and systems transformation. She is fluent in English and Amharic.