Biography

Sonia Ferdous Hoque is an environmental social scientist, with research experience in urban water governance, conservation and pricing, rural livelihoods, climate change adaptation and poverty dynamics. She currently leads on qualitative research approaches linking water security and poverty for the REACH: Improving water security for the poorprogramme, focusing on Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. She holds a PhD in Earth and Environment (2016) from the University of Leeds. Her PhD research explored the differential livelihood adaptation to socio-ecological change in coastal Bangladesh. She has completed her MSc. in Environmental Management (2011) from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and BSc. in Environmental Science (2009) from North South University, Dhaka. She has received the Shell Gold Medal and Prize and the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for being the most outstanding student of her masters and bachelors cohort respectively. Prior to joining her PhD program, Sonia worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Water Policy (IWP), NUS (2011 – 2013), where her research focused on roles of private and public sector in urban water governance and water tariffs in urban domestic and non-domestic sectors. She also served as a Research Officer at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) (2009-2010), where she was involved in research on climate change adaptation in Bangladesh.