Zahra Esmail

Order in Council appointment as a member of the Board of Governors of British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) effective July 31, 2025. Member of the Tributes Committee.

Vantage Point's mission is to transform not-for-profit organizations by convening, connecting, and equipping leaders to lift organizational capacity. Every client leaves our programs with resources to excel in their role and grow the impact of their organization.

The Poverty Reduction Advisory Committee is an independent committee that advises government on policy developments related to poverty reduction and prevention, as legislated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Act. I was appointed a member in 2019 and assumed the role of Chair in 2022.

First Executive Director of the Marpole Neighbourhood House, established in 2019. Led start-up process from initial proposal development through to grand opening and implementation of vision. ED for first two years of operations.

Senior leader of a large, thriving neighbourhood house serving three city neighbourhoods with a team of 80+ and a budget of $4+ million. Grew budget by 50% through expansion and diversification of funding. Worked with Community Board and staff to determine strategic direction to contribute to both a stronger organization and stronger neighbourhoods in South Vancouver. Portfolio included food security, settlement, children and family, youth, seniors, adult day programs, operations, and community development.

• Senior manager of 50-bed transitional shelter facility and training program for homeless youth • Managed site operations and program budgets of over $3 million • Directly supervised site management team; ultimate responsiblity for all site human resource functions (30+ staff) in a unionized environment • Developed, implemented and evaluated all programs in consultation with residents and site staff to ensure high quality service delivery • Created feedback channels with youth participants to ensure inclusive programming with local ownership • Successfully motivated team to achieve ambitious results with limited budgets • Conceptualized and developed funding proposals; secured approximately $1 million in new and renewed funds annually • Effectively built relationships with community agencies, donors, general public, volunteers and government • Developed and oversaw implementation of business plan for Eva’s social enterprise, the Phoenix Print Shop, to ensure commercial success and effectiveness of training program

• Managed youth livelihood projects in Sierra Leone, Colombia, India and the Philippines; worked extensively with local partners • Responsible for monitoring, evaluation and learning for Canadian office • Identified and built relationships with overseas partners; developed project proposals • Strategic planning for programs (short and long term); reporting to key stakeholders • Managed CIDA-funded International Youth Internship Program; co-managed multi-year CIDA-funded project in Ethiopia • Designed and facilitated participatory training-of-trainers curricula for street-affected youth on life skills, business skills, financial access, job readiness, coaching and mentorship

• Managed community development and livelihoods components of all programs; designed and managed community health worker project in Gonaives • Developed strategy and implementation plans for new and existing projects; monitored and evaluated programs with emphasis on extracting lessons learned • Worked closely with a team of local staff to build their capacity; training and sensitization on participatory development for all levels of staff • Contributed to proposal design, report writing and budget development • Monitored activities of organizations working in partnership with Haven • Established exit strategies for Haven to successfully withdraw from communities that had become reliant on its support

• Developed partnerships, wrote grant proposals, liaised with donors • Designed, monitored and reported on projects related to health (rehabilitation and community health), livelihoods, agriculture, watershed management, shelter, etc. • Designed program materials and compiled participant case studies • Coordinated annual reports and other reports as required

• Completed internship on microfinance in Bangladesh; received training on various microfinance programs • Received in depth training on BRAC’s Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Specially Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR: STUP) programme • Significant exposure to livelihood development for ultra poor households using participatory methods (participatory rural appraisals / wealth rankings, focus groups, households surveys, verification, asset transfer, health network linkages, etc.)