North-South Report

Willy Brandt's efforts in behalf of global political cooperation, which he intensified after his resignation as Chancellor, meet with worldwide attention. In 1977 Robert McNamara, President of the World Bank, calls upon Willy Brandt to assume the chairmanship of the "Independent Commission for International Developmental Issues" (the "North-South Commission"). Brandt has many political obligations at this time. He is the Chairman of the SPD, President of the Socialist International, member of the Bundestag (Lower House of the German Parliament), and top candidate on the SPD list for the first direct election of the European Parliament. Nonetheless, Brandt accepts the additional assignment.

Willy Brandt is able to obtain the services of well-known statesmen and experts from various developing and industrial countries for the work of the North-South Commission. The consultations take over two years. On February 12, 1980 the Commission presents its "North-South Report" to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York. The full title reads: To Ensure Survival - Common Interests of the Industrial and Developing Countries. The study arouses worldwide attention and becomes known as the Brandt Report.

The Brand Report seeks a balance in developmental policies and demands that the countries of the South be integrated into the global economic system. The North-South Commission expects that this will bring about needed improvements in economic and social conditions in disadvantaged countries. At the same time, the rich industrial countries of the North are called upon to share their means and power with the countries of the South. The Report contains a number of proposals for the reform and transformation of the world economic system. It concludes that the introduction of such a new system would be an important contribution to the survival of humanity. The connection between armaments and poverty in the countries of the Third World is pointed out: worldwide disarmament could make available huge sums of money for the development of third world countries.

Willy Brandt writes in the Foreword of the comprehensive study: "This Report is based on the most simple of common interests - humanity wants to survive and, one can add, it has the moral duty to survive. This raises not only classical questions of war and peace, but also the questions how can one defeat hunger in the world, overcome mass misery, and meet the challenge of the inequality in living conditions between rich and poor. To express it in a few words: This report is about peace."