Hello
from
We’re Irina and Katja, and together we head up the Commissioning Parties Division at GIZ. With our teams, our job is to make sure the views and priorities of our commissioning parties and other funding providers are seen and heard across our company. The German Government, the European Union and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Norad, are some of the organisations we work with.
We are tackling this challenge together as one of 21 co-leadership duos at GIZ. Co-leadership means that two managers work in tandem. Each of us has their own team and area of responsibility.
My team and I – Katja – look after GIZ’s international contacts. I’ve worked in various positions in Germany and around the world – my last job was that of programme manager in Georgia. So initiating and maintaining relationships is just my thing, working with partners like the European Commission in Brussels, the World Bank in Washington and the Green Climate Fund in South Korea.
And I – Irina – am responsible for contacts in Berlin. With my team, I manage our business relationships with the German Development Ministry and other ministries. I learned how to lead and how to navigate the political terrain between Germany and our partner countries in my previous positions, including as country director in Romania, Myanmar and the Philippines and Pacific Island countries.
Although we each have a clear-cut area of responsibility, we also often work hand in hand. We bounce ideas off one another, and we can size up challenges with two pairs of eyes. Sometimes we have different opinions – and when that’s the case, we find a solution together. This makes our decision-making not just well founded but also very rapid, as we deputise for one another and take decisions on each other’s behalf if necessary. Our commissioning parties really appreciate that, as do our teams.
With our different perspectives and experience, we complement each other extremely well, bringing our own strengths to the job while also balancing out any weaknesses. That’s the real added value in sharing the role like this. The chemistry is right between us, but that’s not the only key to successful co-leadership. It’s a question of attitude, and it has to work regardless of the individual concerned, not just with your favourite colleague. So after two years, what do we think? Co-leadership creates added value – more than that, it’s a superpower!
With best regards from
Katja Kammerer and Irina Scheffmann
December 2023