Matthias Jaeger is International IDEA’s inaugural Head of Programme for Climate Change and Democracy. He first joined the Institute in December 2022 as a national expert seconded by the German government, tasked with leading the design of an institution-wide initiative on the interlinkages between climate change and democracy. After concluding his secondment and the initiative’s exploration, conception and development phases, Matthias joined International IDEA as a staff member, based in Washington D.C., in June 2025.

Prior to working with the Institute, Matthias served as a policy advisor at Germany’s International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) in Bonn. In this role, he advised the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on all things governance, with a particular focus on governance assessments, international democracy promotion, rule of law, and liaising with International IDEA. In recent years, Matthias has set up a regional leadership programme on open government at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C.; developed a protection programme for whistleblowers and anti-corruption champions for Transparency International in Berlin; and advised senior management at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw (ODIHR) on political, strategic and organizational matters as well as resource mobilization. He started his career at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Gütersloh/Germany, where he worked on the Transformation Index (BTI) and coordinated the Transformation Thinkers network, an interregional and interdisciplinary dialogue on good governance and democratic change.

Matthias is part of the German civilian expert pool for peace operations in Berlin and has served as an international election observer for OSCE/ODIHR (in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Ukraine) as well as the OAS (in El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico). He is a UNAOC International Fellow, Member of the European-Arab Young Leaders Forum, and a Rotary Peace Fellow, among other distinctions, and has published widely on international affairs.