Brought up in Mumbai, a land-scarce, high-density metropolis, Sanjana Sidhra’s interest in housing stems from witnessing the disparity between informal and formal urban settlements and the profound impact it has on city dwellers. Her approach to housing development is rooted in the belief that housing is fundamental to an individual’s social mobility.
Sanjana is an urban development professional with over six years of experience in affordable housing, gender-inclusive development, and policy advisory across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At AHI, she manages the organization’s International Development Consulting (IDC) assignments, collaborating with governments, multilateral development agencies, and financial institutions to design and implement sustainable housing solutions. Through these consulting assignments, she has helped mobilize over $100M in investments for institutions like the Agence Française de Développement
(AFD) and the Islamic Development Bank. Her work spans housing policy design, housing finance product development, affordability modeling, subsidy design, and legal-regulatory frameworks. Sanjana has contributed to a range of projects in over 12 countries, supporting the development of sustainable housing systems globally.
In addition to her consulting work, Sanjana leads AHI’s Chrysalis Housing Impact Accelerator, a flagship program launched in 2025 to support emerging housing enterprises, including developers, financiers, and builders. As Program Manager, she co-developed Chrysalis’s 20-week curriculum, which addresses critical barriers to scaling housing solutions through capacity building, peer learning, and expert coaching.
Sanjana has also served as a Teaching Assistant for Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Executive Education Program in Affordable Housing, where she helps deliver training for mid-career housing professionals and public officials.
Sanjana holds a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Mumbai University. She is a licensed architect in India and speaks English and Hindi.
