Katja is IRC's Governance Researcher, leading the research portfolio on governance and working directly with the Governance Technical Unit to generate evidence across priority areas of governance programming. These include empowering clients, including in locally-led climate change adaptation, system strengthening, and designing nexus approaches to programming. Prior to joining the IRC, Katja worked in Afghanistan as a researcher and monitoring and evaluation professional for local research NGOs, and international humanitarian and development organizations. Katja holds a degree in urbanism from the University of Ljubljana and a Masters in Participatory Urban Development in the Global South from University College London. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Public and Urban Policy at the New School. Her doctoral research focuses on climate adaptation in fragile cities and specifically the role of non-state actors in this process.