Sonja Maher holds qualifications in Political Science/International Relations and Constitutional Law. She has more than 20 years’ experience in South African Government institutional reform, performance management, capacity building and poverty alleviation projects. She started her career at the City of Johannesburg conducting the Secretariat function of the Major Cities Organization, an umbrella body, representing the 10 major cities in RSA. She was instrumental in drafting Chapter 7 of the South African Constitution on Local Government and Intergovernmental Relations. She served on the core team to develop the constitution of SALGA. She was the first CEO of the Gauteng Branch of SALGA and served as CEO of the Eastern Cape Branch of SALGA, and served as donor funded project coordinator for SALGA Head Office. To this end she facilitated negotiations and bi-lateral agreements with many Embassies and Donor Agencies across the world. She has vast experience in government policy and strategy formulation. She has in-depth knowledge on Employee Performance Management Systems, Project Monitoring and Evaluation Systems, Labour Relations conflict resolution and Institutional Change Management.