Lena Ahrens works in the sector program "Realizing Human Rights in Development Cooperation" at GIZ, the German Agency for International Cooperation. At GIZ she is responsible for advancing the inclusion and non-discrimination of LGBTI* in German development cooperation and for providing advice to the German government regarding this topic. Prior to her current position, she has worked as an evaluator for the German Institute of Development Evaluation (DEval) in strategic evaluations focusing on mainstreaming gender and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in development cooperation. In the past, Lena has also worked at the World Bank, the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ) and at World Vision Germany. She has started her career at the women's rights organization Casa MarĂa Amor in Cuenca, Ecuador and in a GIZ program focusing on women's empowerment in Indonesia. Lena is a social scientist and holds an M.A. in gender and development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK.