Regina Birner joined the Development Strategy and Governance Division in September 2004 to lead IFPRI's research program on “Governance for Agriculture and Rural Development.” Her research interests include the political economy of agricultural policy-making and the analysis of local governance, rural service provision and public sector reforms. Prior to joining IFPRI, she was an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Rural Development at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where her research focused on the analysis of political processes and on decentralization and collaborative governance in natural resource management. Dr. Birner served as Co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Development at Göttingen University and as Vice-chair of the German Council for Tropical and Sub-tropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF). She is a German citizen and holds a PhD in Socioeconomics of Rural Development from the University of Göttingen, and a M.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Munich-Weihenstephan, Germany.