Sona

Hello, I am Sona Sharma, Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Advisor. I’m a huge advocate for evidence-based SBC consistently promote this when providing technical support (either in-country or remotely) to practitioners working on nutrition in emergencies. I support all aspects of SBC for nutrition programs, including integration between nutrition and related sectors.

I strongly believe that two-way learning and dialogue is needed for any SBC intervention to succeed. So, I am very enthusiastic about capacity strengthening and ensuring interactions with communities feed into SBC strategy development.

My experience of over two decades has instilled in me a conviction in the power of local solutions, stories, and entertainment education in changing behaviors. I also always apply a gender lens to communication initiatives.

My recent work with the GNC has mainly been remote support. This has widened the number of countries I have been able to work with at the same time. I have provided remote support to teams in Somalia, South Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in the last year alone, on SBC, risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) and advocacy for nutrition responses. You can see a recent example of RCCE strategy development guidance that I worked on for IMC Somalia here.

Shona is hosted by Action Against Hunger Canada