Sonia Whitehead, United Kingdom, is the Head of Research Programmes at BBC Media Action. She 16 years of national and international experience in research across the social, commercial and development sectors. This work has ranged from understanding how people with disabilities cope with the London Underground, assessing the effectiveness of advertising in India, and exploring gender related issues among people living in camps in Darfur. After working in Market Research in the UK and India, Sonia joined BBC MA in 2006. She is now the Head of Research Programmes and oversees research across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and works with her team to generate and communicate insights and evidence on BBC MA’s research impact, evaluation, and effectiveness. She has most recently managed the development of a data portal that holds BBC MA’s governance, media and resilience data and has co-written a report which evaluates the effectiveness of BBC MA’s capacity strengthening interventions.