Ashna Mathema is a Senior Urban Development Specialist in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice of the World Bank. She is an architect/ urban planner with over two decades of experience in over 35 countries. Her work ranges from micro-level field work in poor urban communities (quantitative and qualitative surveys/ assessments) to sector analyses (covering housing and land markets, urban infrastructure and services, housing finance/ microfinance, subsidies, low income/ vulnerable communities, energy efficiency, disaster risk reduction and reconstruction, urban upgrading/regeneration, social development) to macro-level policy formulation (national and city level housing policy and strategies). Prior to joining the World Bank full-time in 2012, she consulted for numerous donors (USAID, ADB, UN-Habitat, World Bank) and private firms on a host of housing and urban development topics. She is also the co-author of “Development Poverty and Politics: Putting Communities in the Driver’s Seat”, which was inspired by her experiences with low income communities, and is centered on real and meaningful community participation. Ashna holds a graduate degree in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.