Sonia Shahid is an economist and public finance specialist with strong expertise in market systems development, WASH & waste systems, MHH and gender-responsive service delivery. She has worked closely with governments, donors, and private sector actors to translate complex challenges into actionable solutions.

Her work focuses on strengthening institutions, designing evidence-based policies, and developing resilient service systems that respond to disasters, urban and rural vulnerability, and resource insecurity. She specializes in political economy analysis, rigorous impact evaluations, and data-driven policy design.

She has led large-scale projects for organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank as well as UN agencies including UNICEF and UNOPS.  She has supported ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the governments of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria in developing evaluations, designing sustainable financing models, strengthening data systems, advancing MHH programming, and enabling private sector participation in essential service delivery.

She has produced a wide range of knowledge products, including policy briefs, technical guidance, and peer-reviewed research-with publications in Taylor & Francis, BMJ Public Health, and the Journal of Small Business Strategy. Some of these knowledge products were also developed with MDAs in Bengali, French and English.

With a strong academic foundation—an MSc in Economics from Independent University Bangladesh, an MBA in Finance from BRAC Business School, and a BBA in Strategy & Policy from North South University—and currently pursuing a PhD in Economics from SOAS University of London, she brings over two decades of experience delivering public sector advisory and applied research across Asia and Africa.