Sonia Martins

Sonia Martins

Role: Head of Africa Programme Management

Team: Programmes and Policy team

Profile:

I provide strategic support to CARE country offices and manage a portfolio of projects mainly on gender-based violence and governance themes. I have also been supporting gender mainstreaming across CARE since 2011 and I currently co-chair the CARE gender network.

I hold a Masters degree in development and governance from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and have over 10 years' experience in programme management, particularly in Latin America and Africa.

Email: Martins@careinternational.org


Blog posts

“He always came home late and drunk and he often kicked the door open while hurling insults at me and the children. I became such a miserable person.... After a number of curriculum sessions, I started to notice a change of heart in my husband,

Research shows that addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) requires working at society, community, household and individual levels to promote relationships built on respect, equality and peace. This blog shares the emerging learnings of

Preventing intimate partner violence (IPV) won’t happen overnight. It requires a lengthy process of social change, and achieving that requires both time and funding

Village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) have been a powerful tool for enabling millions of women to access loans, set up small businesses and improve their quality of life. But as an

20 years after the Beijing conference the incidence of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) remains outrageously high with one in three women in the world condemned to experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. Nevertheless we

“Violence against women is accepted and some people even forget that it is a crime. It’s so common that it’s no longer considered as a serious matter.” These words from a woman activist in northern Ecuador, on the border with Colombia,


Humanitarian team

CARE International UK’s humanitarian team supports CARE’s humanitarian work by accessing funding, and by providing project management and technical advice and capacity to CARE’s country offices and CARE’s emergency responses. CARE has a strong focus on ensuring that all our humanitarian programming responds meaningfully to the needs and capacities of different people, whatever their gender, identity or particular circumstances. CARE’s emergency shelter team is also based at CARE International UK.

Senior Humanitarian Advisor (Gender and Protection)

Toral is currently on sabbatical until the end of 2019. My job is to make sure that CARE’s humanitarian work…

Senior Humanitarian Advisor specialising in Gender and Protection

Suzy Madigan is CARE International UK’s Senior Humanitarian Advisor specialising in Gender and Protection and regularly deploys to emergencies worldwide…

Inclusive Governance team

Poverty and social injustice are caused and maintained by unequal power relations that result in the inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities – between women and men, between power-holders and marginalised communities, and between countries. CARE believes poor governance is a key cause of poverty and social injustice. Our Inclusive Governance team promotes inclusive and accountable governance systems so that poor and marginalised people have influence over decisions that affect their lives. We help communities get organised and get their priorities included in development planning. We work to increase women’s voice and leadership in public life. We support service users to hold service providers to account. We work with public authorities and service providers to help them become more transparent and responsive to poor and marginalised people.

Senior Governance Advisor – Asia and MENA

As a member of CARE International’s global Inclusive Governance technical team, currently based in Myanmar, I provide technical assistance to…

Governance and Accountability Advisor, Africa

Currently I am advisor on inclusive governance and accountability for the Eastern, Southern and Horn of Africa region within CARE…

Programmes and Policy team

The Programmes and Policy team is responsible for overseeing programme quality and multiplying the impact of our programming by encouraging governments, business and donors – based on the evidence we witness on the ground – to adopt policy reforms that support the world’s poorest people and communities. Working in partnership with our country programmes, women’s rights organisations and civil society, we put forward the views of the most marginalised to governments, including the UK government, multinational businesses and global institutions and press the case for change. In short, our goal is to change the rules of the game that keep people poor.

Head of Africa Programme Management

I provide strategic support to CARE country offices and manage a portfolio of projects mainly on gender-based violence and governance…

Head of Programmes

I am Head of Programmes for CARE International UK, overseeing our development and humanitarian programming in Africa, Asia and the…

Strategic Partnerships team

Strategic partnerships are a key way for CARE to increase and widen our impact. Our Private Sector Engagement team partners with national and multinational companies to co-create innovative 'inclusive business' approaches that drive new opportunities for poor people as producers, workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. We – and our partners – believe this makes good business sense: helping to generate efficiency, securing supply chains, accessing new markets and products, and improving credibility with consumers who increasingly expect companies to behave responsibly. Our Institutional Partnerships team connects the vision and commitment of our funding partners with poverty-fighting programmes throughout the world.

Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive

I manage CARE’s Cocoa Life partnership with Mondelez in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, working to create a vibrant, strong cocoa…

Partnership Officer

In my role at CARE I provide support across the team ranging from reporting for our partnership with GSK to…

Women’s Economic Empowerment team

Our Women’s Economic Empowerment team leads CARE’s work globally to ensure women have greater access to and control over economic resources, assets and opportunities. We focus on four inter-related pathways to economic empowerment, based on a combination of women’s core economic roles as producers, workers, entrepreneurs and consumers: financial inclusion, women and value chains, dignified work, and entrepreneurship. We also focus on supporting the involvement of women in creating resilient markets in fragile and humanitarian contexts.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor

Regine is currently on leave. I lead CARE International’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning work for our Women’s Economic Empowerment programmes.…

Advisor – Dignified Work

I provide technical expertise for CARE globally on Dignified Work – CARE’s strategy for promoting access to gender-equitable, economically empowering…

I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people…

CARE International alumni

Many CARE staff who have written Insights blogs have since moved on to other roles. Your blogs are still part of the CARE story – and we welcome any future contributions you may make to Insights and to our shared learning on what works in humanitarian response and international development.

Gender and Protection Researcher

At CARE I led a research project which aimed to strengthen collaboration between women-led civil society organisations (CSOs) and international…

Tom joined CARE in 2011 and from 2015 he led the Strategic Partnerships team at CARE International UK. In January…