Norbert Henninger

Senior Associate

Bio

Norbert Henninger is a Senior Associate in WRI's Food, Forests and Water Program. He focuses on creating better information and new tools in partnership with non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and international institutions to improve ecosystem management and human well-being.

Norbert’s collaborations resulted in Kenya’s first atlas of ecosystem services and poverty, economic valuation of selected ecosystem services in the Ewaso Ng’iro river basin, and a website designed to improve access to spatial information and new mapping technologies. He coordinated the Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE), a first overview of the global conditions of ecosystems and the primary goods and services provided by them. PAGE proved the feasibility of a global ecosystem assessment and was instrumental in building institutional, financial, and scientific support to launch the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Norbert produced the first international synthesis documenting the use of poverty maps drawing widespread attention to the practical benefits of poverty mapping. His subsequent collaboration with partners in Kenya and Uganda resulted in increased geographic targeting of government resources to poor areas.

He has designed analytical frameworks to assess access to environmental information, participation and justice and provided technical advisory services on the use of environmental and socio-economic data and indicators. Norbert coordinated WRI’s effort to build a case to incorporate ecosystem services more comprehensively into the new IFC Performance Standards.

Norbert received his MSc in Environmental Sciences from Johns Hopkins University and his MBA from the University of Mannheim, Germany.

Blog Posts

Maps Guide Water and Sanitation Planning in Africa
by Florence Landsberg and Norbert Henninger - October 08, 2009
State of the art GIS maps shed new light on Uganda’s development challenges.
Poverty Reduction Policies Should Focus on Geography in Rural Kenya
by Norbert Henninger - November 29, 2007
Based on GIS mapping technology, a new study suggests that poverty alleviation policies in rural Kenya could achieve more if they focus on geographic factors.