Sonal Mehta

Sonal Mehta is Director for programmes and policy at India HIV/AIDS Alliance, a diverse partnership that brings together committed organisations and communities to support sustained responses to HIV in India. The organisation complements the Indian national programme, through capacity building, knowledge sharing, technical support and advocacy. Sonal has over 25 years of experience of working in sexual rights, reproductive health and gender issues. She has worked with government at state and national levels and with international organisations both within India and in the United States and has supported numerous programmes implemented by Indian civil society organisations with her expertise on strategic planning, programme development, and advocacy. At Alliance India she leads a growing and diverse portfolio from Pehchan, a Global Fund-supported programme to
strengthen organisations in 17 states working on HIV prevention issues focusing on men who have sex with men, transgender and hijra to the Elton John AIDS Foundation-funded Chanura Kol programme working with female injecting drug users in Manipur; to Hridaya, expanding harm reduction services to more than 180,000 injecting drug users, their partners and children, and build capacity of service providers, making harm reduction programmes more gender-responsive, improving access to services and advocating for the rights of IDUs; to European Commission-funded work on sexual and reproductive health and rights advocacy with adolescents and strengthening civil society organisations and networks to effectively advocate for policies and strategies on SRH rights for PLHIV in India through the Action and Koshish Project. www.allianceindia.org