Gro Harlem Brundtland quotes

Gro Harlem Brundtland is a Norwegian politician, physician, and diplomat, known as the first female Prime Minister of Norway. A prominent advocate for sustainable development, she chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development, which produced the influential Brundtland Report. She has also served as Director-General of the World Health Organization, shaping global public health policy. Here are 39 of her quotes:

Investing in health will produce enormous benefits. (Gro Harlem Brundtland)
A safe and nutritionally adequate diet is a basic individual right and an essential condition for sustainable development, especially in developing countries. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Such lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, little physical activity and low dietary calcium intake are risk factors for osteoporosis as well as for many other non-communicable diseases. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Intervention for the prevention and control of osteoporosis should comprise a combination of legislative action, educational measures, health service activities, media coverage, and individual counselling to initiate changes in behaviour. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
It's typically Norwegian to be good. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
[20th Century has been called] the century of extremes, [...] in which human vices reached unfathomable depths. [She notes that it has been] a century of great progress [and in some places of] unprecedented economic growth. [At the same time, however, poor urban areas face a bleak future of] overcrowding and a disease pattern linked to poverty and an unhealthy environment. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
More than ever before, there is a global understanding that long-term social, economic, and environmental development would be impossible without healthy families, communities, and countries. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
During my nearly five years as director-general of WHO, high-level policymakers have increasingly recognized that health is central to sustainable development. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Contaminated food is a major cause of diarrhea, substantially contributing to malnutrition and killing about 2.2 million people each year, most of them children. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers' suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions and unwanted children. (Gro Harlem Brundtland)
This is a historic moment in global public health, demonstrating the international will to tackle a threat to health head on. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Let me first say that I don't think the millennium target of cutting global poverty in half is an impossible or abstract target. I think it is a real and achievable goal. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
That the AIDS pandemic is threatening sustainable development in Africa only reinforces the reality that health is at the center of sustainable development. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Since the reduction of risk factors is the scientific basis for primary prevention, the World Health Organization promotes the development of an integrated strategy for prevention of several diseases, rather than focusing on individual ones. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
I have seen this happen in recent years with regard to pharmaceuticals and vaccines, where, working together, we are improving access to medicines and vaccines for infectious diseases in the poorest countries. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
The development of the food industry for both domestic and export markets relies on a regulatory framework that both protects the consumer and assures fair trading practices in food. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Today osteoporosis affects more than 75 million people in the United States, Europe and Japan and causes more than 2.3 million fractures in the USA and Europe alone. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
An important lever for sustained action in tackling poverty and reducing hunger is money. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
The burden of disease falls on the poor. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat... The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread. (Gro Harlem Brundtland)
With an annual investment of $66 billion by 2007, we can save 8 million lives each year. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
In recognising the global problem posed by osteoporosis, WHO sees the need for a global strategy for prevention and control of osteoporosis, focusing on three major functions: prevention, management and surveillance. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
We have an opportunity to launch a massive effort against infectious diseases. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland
The global toll of mental illness and neurological disorders is staggering. View quote
Gro Harlem Brundtland