Brundtland addressing the Congress of the Norwegian Labour Party, 2007. Photo: Harry Wad

Gro Harlem Brundtland – A Center of Activity
Born, 20 April, 1939 a Norwegian politician, diplomat, and physician, and an international leader in sustainable development and public health. She is a former Prime Minister of Norway, and has served as the Director General of the World Health Organization. She now serves as a Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.^[1] In 2008 she became the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. ^[2]

Domestic career

Born in Oslo, Brundtland was educated as a Medical Doctor (cand. med.) at the University of Oslo in 1963, and Master of Public Health at Harvard University in 1965. From 1966 to 1969, she worked as a physician at the Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet), and from 1969 she worked as a doctor in Oslo's public school health service. She was Norwegian Minister for Environmental Affairs from 1974 to 1979, and became Norway's first — and to date only — female Prime Minister. She served as Prime Minister from February to October in 1981.

Brundtland became Norwegian Prime Minister for two subsequent terms from 9 May 1986 until 16 October 1989 (This cabinet was internationally renowned for its large percentage of female ministers. Eight of the eighteen total were female) and from 3 November 1990 until 25 October 1996, when she resigned and retired from Norwegian politics, and was succeeded by Thorbjørn Jagland. She resigned as leader of the Norwegian Labour Party in 1992.

Gro Harlem Brundtland is a member of Human-Etisk Forbund, the Norwegian Humanist Association.

International career

In 1983, Brundtland was invited by then United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), widely referred to as the Brundtland Commission, developing the broad political concept of sustainable development in the course of extensive public hearings that were distinguished by their inclusiveness and published its report Our Common Future in April 1987. The Brundtland Commission provided the momentum for the 1992 Earth Summit/UNCED, that was headed by Maurice Strong, who had been a prominent member of the Brundtland Commission. The Brundtland Commission also provided momentum for Agenda 21.