Contexts of work
🇰🇪 Kenya
🇲🇿 Mozambique
🇬🇭 Ghana
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
🇹🇿 Tanzania
🇯🇴 Jordan
🇦🇺 Australia
Projects
Sarah Hassanen
I believe that the most effective solutions come from deeply understanding the people they are designed for - and questioning whether what we are building is truly needed in the first place.
Sarah is a researcher and designer with over 15 years of experience in international development,including more than a decade working across the African continent. Born and raised in Australia, with family roots in Egypt, she brings a global perspective shaped by work across Africa, theMiddle East, and Australia. She is currently based in Nairobi.
Her work focuses on bridging the gap between people’s lived realities and the goals oforganisations. Through in-depth qualitative research, she uncovers what people actually need,want, and value, translating these insights into clear, actionable directions for design and strategy.
Sarah has been collaborating with Sonder for the past seven years, contributing to a range ofprojects across contexts. Most recently, she is part of the Technical Assistance team forPathways, previously serving as Project Lead for Pathways Indonesia and Kenya Lead forVxData Insights.
She is known for a nimble and iterative approach - rapidly prototyping and testing ideas to helpteams learn quickly and avoid investing in solutions that don’t work. Her work is grounded in a commitment to ensuring that interventions, products, and services are not only aligned withclient goals, but are genuinely relevant, useful, and meaningful to the communities they aim to serve.