Brandt Report

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Brandt Reports (1980, 1983) Two reports by an international commission convened by the UN on the state of the world economy, which had met since 1977 under the chairmanship of Willy Brandt. In the reports, the commission urged an immediate redress of the inequalities of prosperity between the wealthy countries of the northern and the poorer countries of the southern hemisphere. This was to be achieved, for example, through changes in the economic system (lower tariffs) and a redistribution of wealth from north to south. More specifically, the reports recommended the annual payment of development aid of a minimum of 0.7 per cent of GDP by 1985, and 1 per cent by the year 2000. This was regularly exceeded by the Scandinavian countries, with Norway, for example, giving 1.15 per cent of its GDP in 1992. Most other developed countries, however, never undertook serious efforts to meet this target, with Switzerland giving 0.46, the UK 0.31, Japan 0.3, and the US 0.2 per cent of GDP in 1992. At the same time, the report has been criticized for an exaggerated emphasis on economic aid, and too little concern for structural reforms to be undertaken in the poorer countries themselves.

Brandt Report A report, entitled North-South: A Programme for Survival (1980), by an international commission on the state of the world economy. Convened by the United Nations, it met from 1977 to 1979 under the chairmanship of Willy BRANDT. It recommended urgent improvement in the trade relations between the rich Northern Hemisphere and poor Southern for the sake of both. Governments in the north were reluctant to accept the recommendations. Members of the commission therefore reconvened to produce a second report, Common Crisis North-South: Cooperation for World Recovery (1983), which perceived ‘far greater dangers than three years ago’, forecasting ‘conflict and catastrophe’ unless the imbalances in international finance could be solved.