Brandt Commission
Summary of Brandt Commission
A group of eighteen prominent individuals from five continents, formed to explore economic relationships between industrial and developing nations and to recommend changes in those relationships with the object of accelerating development in poorer countries. Established as an unofficial working party, called the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, the group, under the chairmanship of former German chancellor Willy Brandt, issued a report of its finding in March 1980. The report, entitled North-South: A Program for Survival, stressed the interdependence of industrial and developing nations, particularly the reliance of the industrial nations upon the raw materials produced in Third World countries, and the role of developing countries in the recycling of excess funds. The report urged immediate actions: massive transfer of technological and financial resources to developing countries, both on market and on concessional terms; a global program to relieve hunger; and an energy strategy that would reduce demand on the part of industrial nations and help developing states bear the burden of increased energy costs. The Brandt Commission and its report served to lay the groundwork for United Nations efforts to devise a global energy strategy.
See New International Economic Order.
(Main Author: William J. Miller)
Brandt Commission
Brandt Commission, international committee that studied global development issues from 1977 to 1983. It produced two reports stressing the interdependence of the countries of the wealthy, industrialized North and the poor South (or Third World), and made recommendations for speeding up the development of poorer countries (which involved the transfer of resources from rich countries).
The commission, officially named the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, had 18 members that acted independently of governments and was headed by West German chancellor Willy Brandt. It examined the problems of poorer countries with the aim of identifying corrective measures that would foster international support. Its main report was published in 1980 under the title North_South: A Programme for Survival. Both reports issued by the commission noted that measures taken in the past had met with limited success, but this was also to be the fate of the commission’s recommendations. The Brandt Commission was disbanded in 1983. (1)
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