As Senior Project Director of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Ilka Starrost is currently steering the implementation of a regional program „Capacity Development for Climate Policy in the Countries of Southeastern, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia”, which is being financed in the frame of the International Climate Initiative of the German Government (Federal Ministry for Economy and Climate Action and Federal Foreign Office). The project is being implemented since 2017 with its focus to improve capacities for well-informed decision-making and robust planning processes in the context of ambitious climate mitigation policy. With an academic background in environmental and resource management, sustainable land use and organizational development, Ilka Starrost first joined GIZ in 2003. For eight years she supported the preparation and implementation of technical cooperation programs fostering sustainable land use under consideration of climate change impacts in Central Asia. Afterwards, she returned to Germany and took over country management responsibility for GIZ portfolio in the Central Asian region and coordinated the climate change portfolio of the respective regional department at GIZ headquarters. Since 2014 she has been heading different projects covering a wide range of subjects in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation in Southeastern, Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia.