Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark ONZ SSIis the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, and was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand. As Prime Minister she served three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008 and was the first woman elected at a general election as the Prime Minister, and was the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. She has been Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, the third-highest UN position, since 2009. In April 2016, she declared...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 February 1950
CityHamilton, New Zealand
Well in the end the world can crank itself up to sanctions, as it has with Zimbabwe, another sad case.
Economic growth which strips out the planet’s ecosystems is not sustainable
Although biodiversity loss continues globally, many countries are significantly slowing the rate of loss by shoring up protected natural areas and the services they provide, and in expanding national park systems with tighter management and more secure funding.
New Zealand's been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues.
In terms of protecting ourselves, the main issues are around how do we protect our borders [from illegal migrants and livestock and plant diseases], how do we protect our fisheries?
I only take on roles that I'm passionate about. Life is too short to do things that you're not happy with.
Innovation applied across the board of development is having a huge impact, and can have more. All sorts of technology can provide shortcuts, can overcome obstacles which once seemed insuperable.
As New Zealanders, we've been in on the United Nations from the very beginning, played a role in the drafting of the charter - it means a lot to us that those processes are followed.
It is a very small minority point of view and I think, through continuing to set the tone of tolerance, acceptance, and diversity, you just have to further marginalize such people. Hopefully one day nobody will think that way.
I don't know that you're ever going to persuade New Zealanders that they're not going to own their own homes and I'm not going to try.
I think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom.
Equity, dignity, happiness, sustainability - these are all fundamental to our lives but absent in the GDP.
We need a lot of thinking and ideas. We need all the innovators, particularly with the new sustainable technologies - how do we get them to affordability so that people can generate clean energy?
Adopting and promoting sustainable production practices require concerted effort, something which in practice is too often missing or insufficient. Making this shift at the scale required demands forward-looking leadership in the public and private sectors alike.