26 June 2013: In an article titled ‘After the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): creating a holistic global development model,’ Gro Harlem Brundtland welcomes the holistic approach in the report of the UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP), and supports its analysis and recommendations on poverty, sustainable development and women’s empowerment.

Brundtland writes that the Panel’s 12 goals go beyond the scope of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to “reflect the reality that a more equal, prosperous, peaceful and just world will require a sea change on a wide range of issues.”

She also recognizes “great strides” in reducing extreme poverty, increasing access to safe drinking water and reducing child mortality, while also noting widening inequality, persistent environmental degradation and climate-induced threats to ecosystem and populations. She stresses that the world must summon the political will to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.

On sustainable development, Brundtland supports the report’s call for equitable growth that takes into account limited natural resources and provides equal opportunities for all. She also welcomes the report’s inclusion of sustainable development in issues such as biodiversity, desertification, energy, environmental accounting and jobs.

Brundtland further supports the Panel’s recognition of the role of women and girls and development, including its calls for equal economic and legal rights, universal reproductive and sexual rights and ending violence against women and girls, including a target on ending child marriage. Brundtland concludes that growing inequality “deserves an even greater focus in the stages to come,” and urges continued momentum on the post-2015 development agenda.

Brundtland led the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), or the “Brundtland Commission.” The Commission published the report ‘Our Common Future,’ which provided momentum for the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). [Brundtland article] [A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development]