A time for bold reforms.

• Author: Brundtland, Gro Harlem
• Position: The United Nations at 70

When the United Nations was born in 1945, I was six years old. The world was emerging from the horrors of the Second World War and Norway was reasserting and re-establishing its democracy after five long years of Nazi occupation. By the time I was ten, my family was living in New York and I was proud and keenly aware that a fellow Norwegian, Trygve Lie, had become the first Secretary-General of the United Nations. Little did I know then that I would also have a long involvement with the Organization.

Over the past 35 years, I have had the honour and privilege to serve on various United Nations commissions and panels, as well as to head one of its flagship agencies. I have seen many positive United Nations-led initiatives which have helped to promote peace, democracy and human rights, improve living conditions and protect the environment, to name a few.

However, now, more than ever, the relevance of the United Nations is at a crossroads. There have been profound shifts of power and wealth in the world since the Organization was established. Of the 193 Member States of the United Nations today, nearly three quarters were not members in 1945.

The purpose of the United Nations is greater than trying to maintain peace and security among nations; it is also to help humanity solve the economic, social, humanitarian and environmental problems facing us.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

As a young Minister of the Environment in the 1970s, I witnessed not only the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but also the United Nations itself engaging Governments in addressing key concerns and challenges. In 1976, my work with the Ministry of the Environment brought me to Vancouver, Canada, for the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, and a year later, in 1977, to Mar del Plata, Argentina, for the United Nations Water Conference. I also travelled to Nairobi, where the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972.

My first role serving the United Nations was in 1983 when Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar invited me to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Commission considered the intertwined challenges of environmental degradation, poverty and population growth. The Commission, which is best known for developing the broad political concept of sustainable development, published its...