World Water Day interview: Dr Annabelle Houdret and Dr Michael Brüntrup

RELX, 22nd March 2021

RELX’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr Márcia Balisciano, talks to Dr Annabelle Houdret and Dr Michael Brüntrup about water security, sustainable consumption and SDG 6. 

Annabelle Houdret is a political scientist and works as a senior researcher at the German Development Institute. After her PhD on water conflicts in Morocco conducted at the University of Duisburg in Germany and Université Paris 8, she headed the water department at Adelphi. Since 2012, she is based at DIE and concentrates on environmental and especially water governance, with a strong focus on development policies in these fields. While her present activities mainly focus on Morocco and other North African countries, she has previously also worked in Sub-Sahara Africa, Mongolia and Nepal.

Annabelle Houdret conducts research and provides policy advice to German development organisations, notably the federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as to other institutions at national and international levels. Together with nine other Bonn-based institutions, she established the Bonn Water Network.

Michael Brüntrup is agricultural engineer and holds a PhD in agricultural economy. Since 2003, after some years in academics and as a freelance consultant, he works as a senior researcher at the German Development Institute/ Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) in Bonn. His interests cover topics related to agriculture, natural resource management, rural development, trade policy and food security with a geographical focus on Sub-Sahara Africa. In the broad area of drought risk management, he focusses on policy coherence of various sectoral policy fields by both partner countries in the North and in the South.

In line with the general DIE-approach, Michael combines academic research and publication in peer-reviewed journals with policy advisory services to German development organisations, notably the federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). He is Germany’s Correspondent to the Committee on Science and Technology and independent scientific member of the Intergovernmental Working Group on drought, both bodies of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).