Astrid Hillers is responsible for the GEF's work on International Waters in Africa and on shared surface and groundwater in Asia. She also leads several cross-sectoral Strategic Global Initiatives at the GEF. Among these strategic initiatives is the work on Water Security and the Nexus between water-food-energy and ecosystems which is underlying both conflict and cooperation potential in many shared surface and groundwater basins. She joined the GEF in 2012. Prior to this she engaged in cooperation on river basins in Africa, especially the Nile basin, during most of her career at the World Bank, where she worked since 2000, and in her previous work at UNDP. At the World Bank, she also led the initial establishment of the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience as part of the Climate Investment Fund team. She is a German national and an environmental engineer by training, and before coming to the US in 1989, she worked for the German Environmental Protection Agency in the water quality compliance program on state level.