Brundtland, Gro Harlem

Gro Harlem Brundtland is one of the former prime ministers of Norway, and has had a long career as a leader on public health and environmental issues. Brundtland began her career in medicine, earning a medical degree from the University of Oslo in 1963 and a Master's of Public Health from Harvard University in 1965. After working as a public health physician in Norway, she went on to a position in Oslo's Board of Health, where she focused on children's issues, and then served as director of health services for the Norwegian public school system. She served as minister for environmental affairs for five years and, in 1981, was elected Norway's first female prime minister (and its youngest, taking office at the age of 41).

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Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, and director-general of the World Health Organization until 2003.

Brundtland served as prime minister for more than 10 years, first during a brief term in 1981 and then returning for two subsequent terms from 1986 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1996. As prime minister, she upheld Norway's Act on Gender Equality and had one of the highest percentages of female cabinet members during her tenure. Brundtland's background in medicine and her years of work in Norway on the connections between public health and the environment led to an invitation in 1983 for her to chair the newly formed United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. The Brundtland Commission, as it became known, focused on the role of the international political community in promoting sustainable development and published its report, Our Common Future, in 1987. The environmental issues raised by the report informed the later United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

In May 1998, Brundtland was named director-general of the World Health Organization-a position she held until 2003. During her tenure at the organization, she focused on a broad platform of global public health issues, including violence, economic issues, natural disaster relief, tobacco addiction, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and maternal and infant health and mortality worldwide. She was recognized by Scientific American as the 2003 Policy Leader of the Year for her response to the sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Brundtland has also been a recognized leader in global human and women's rights, and in 1995 she attended and gave an address at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China.

Brundtland is a member of several international leadership organizations focused on development, the environment, global politics, and human rights, including the Council of Women World Leaders, the Club of Madrid (an independent organization of political leaders and former leaders of democratic nations, founded in 2001), and the Elders (a group founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and others that focuses on peace and human rights issues). Since 2007, Brundtland also has served as a special envoy for climate change for the United Nations.

Brundtland has been the recipient of numerous international awards for her environmental leadership, including the Third World Prize (1988), Indira Gandhi Prize (1988), Onassis Foundation's Delphi Prize (1992), Charlemagne Prize (1994), World Ecology Award (2001), Albert Medal of the Royal Society (2005), Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal (2008), and the very first Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award (2010).

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