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> Gro Harlem Brundtland
About the Participants
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years
as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system
and more than 20 years in public office. But her first choice of
career was neither environmentalist nor politician—she wanted to
become a doctor like her father. Dr. Brundtland inherited another
passion from her father—political activism. At the age of seven,
she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in
its children’s section and has been a member ever since, leading
the Labour Party to election victory three times. When she was 10
years old, the family moved to the United States.
As a young mother and newly qualified
doctor, Dr. Brundtland won a scholarship to the Harvard School of
Public Health, where she received her MPH. Here her vision of health
extending beyond the confines of the medical world into issues of
environment and human development began to take shape. She returned
to Oslo and the Ministry of Health in 1965, and in 1974, Dr. Brundtland
was offered the job as Minister of the Environment.
In 1981 she was appointed Prime Minister
for the first time, the youngest person and the first woman to hold
the office of Prime Minister in Norway. She also served as Prime
Minister from 1986 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1996.
Throughout her political career, Dr.
Brundtland has been concerned with issues of global significance.
In 1983 the United Nations Secretary-General invited her to establish
and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (the
Brundtland Commission), which developed the broad political concept
of sustainable development and published its report, Our Common
Future, in 1987. The Commission’s recommendations led to the Earth
Summit—the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Dr. Brundtland was nominated as Director-General
of the World Health Organization by the Executive Board of WHO in
January 1998. As Director-General, she was most recognized for her
efforts in containing the SARS pandemic. She stepped down from her
position in July 2003, but remains a leading voice behind promoting
a healthier nation.
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