Marika Shioshvili is a proven project manager with more than 20 years of experience providing strategic and technical leadership and operational oversight to complex donor-funded development activities in Georgia. Marika has deep experience working on programs to strengthen Georgia’s economic growth, particularly in strengthening local economic development and developing small busineseses, facilitating pivotal business-enabling reforms to expand sector competitiveness, and addressing capacity building and workforce development needs.

She is currently Chief of Party for the USAID Economic Security Program, responsible for the technical, administrative, and day-to-day management of the project.

Before joining DAI’s team, Marika led a five-year integrated regional and local development project for the U.N. Development Program where she guided the project to support six regions in Georgia to develop economic growth strategies and work collaboratively with the parliament and other key ministries to support decentralization and improve the business enabling environment at local level.

Prior to this, as Director of Local Economic Development and then Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID Communities Empowered for Local Decision-making project, she worked with more than 30 municipalities to develop and implement local economic development strategies to increase income generation and support sustainable growth of small firms in these regions.

A hands-on manager, she brings demonstrated experience working with technical teams to develop grant concepts and work with local and international partners to develop scopes of work to ensure best use of project resources and deliver substantive results in priority development sectors in Georgia.

• Master’s, public administration, Georgian-American Institute of Public Affairs