Sonia Shahid has more than 15 years of experience as a project manager and evaluation expert. Her interests include market development, behavior change, urban planning, migration, circular economy, institutional reform, and governance systems. Her key research areas include sanitation, waste management, renewable energy, agriculture markets, climate resilience, and rigorous impact evaluations.

Prior to working at Athena, Sonia served as a project manager for the ADB-funded TESIRH and BETTS projects, where she worked in eight districts of Bangladesh. She was also a technology commercialization expert for the BMGF-funded “Upscaling Best Practices in Faridpur City for Urban Planning” project, where innovative technologies for fecal sludge management (FSM) were developed. Sonia was a market development expert for the USAID-funded “Development and Marketing Through Private Sector Partners of Jute Fibre Extraction Machine” project, which facilitated four local companies in four districts. She developed the market assessment tool for the Water Hyacinth Floating Vegetable Garden in Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia, which was funded by the Swiss Solidarity Tourism Foundation endowment and the Agence des Micro-Projets. Sonia led the evaluation of different NGO-led migration projects for donors FCDO and the World Bank. She has published a paper entitled “Rural Entrepreneurship as a Coping Mechanism Among the Returnee Migrants: Reviewing the Potentials and Challenges” in The Journal of Small Business Strategy.

Sonia has a MSc. in Economics from the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from North South University (NSU).