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Helen Clark

Headshot of Helen Clark

Helen Clark is former head of the UN Development Programme and former prime minister of New Zealand

May 2026

  • A soldier and a health worker at a lab that tests suspected Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

    double quotation markThe Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks warn us we must be better prepared if we are to prevent the next pandemic

    Helen Clark
    Surveillance that misses a haemorrhagic fever or fails to consider endemic risks at a departure port will be blind to something far more dangerous

June 2025

  • Tail Of Sperm Whale Against Scenic Mountain Range And Sky<br>Photo taken in Kaikoura, New Zealand

    Seascape: the state of our oceans
    double quotation mark New Zealand is failing to protect its vast ocean resources. We owe it to the world to act

    Helen Clark and Kayla Kingdon-Bebb
    Less than 1% of our country’s seas are highly protected and the damaging practice of bottom-trawling must be restricted

May 2021

  • IA commuter walks past a mural depicting Covid frontline workers, Mumbai, January

    Opinion
    double quotation markWhy is the world still being hit by wave after wave of Covid when we know how to stop it?

    Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
    Leaders failed to act fast enough when Covid-19 appeared. They must not keep making the same mistakes

July 2020

  • Trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are being conducted in São Paulo, Brazil.

    double quotation markThe world needs a 'people's vaccine' for coronavirus, not a big-pharma monopoly

    Helen Clark and Winnie Byanyima
    AstraZeneca should not own a patent on a medicine that is needed by poor as well as rich nations, say former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and UN undersecretary general Winnie Byanyima

September 2019

  • Marijuana grows at an indoor cannabis farm in Gardena, California.

    double quotation markCannabis prohibition doesn't work anywhere. It's New Zealand's turn to legalise it

    Helen Clark
    A ‘yes’ in the referendum is a vote to regulate rather than criminalise a drug that’s widely used and less problematic than alcohol

June 2018

  • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with her partner Clarke Gayford posing with their newborn baby girl

    double quotation markJacinda Ardern shows that no doors are closed to women

    Helen Clark
    New Zealand is breaking new ground with a prime minister giving birth and her partner becoming a stay-at-home father

September 2017

  • A UN flag placed by Ghanian peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) flutters amid the rubble of the Lebanese-Israeli border town of Maroun al-Ras 27 August 2006, which witnessed fierce battles between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants. UN chief Kofi Annan will arrive in Beirut tomorrow to discuss with Lebanese officials the deployment of a beefed up UN peacekeeping force as well as measures to secure the border with Syria.

    double quotation markThe UN is failing – states must back off and give its leader the power to act

    Helen Clark
    The former New Zealand premier and top UN official says the organisation cannot hope to end today’s crises while it is hamstrung by micro-management

March 2016

  • A display at the Cop21 climate conference in Paris, 2015.

    double quotation markClimate change is a potent element in the deadly brew of disaster risk

    Helen Clark and Robert Glasser
    By tackling the environment we can also mitigate the impact of disasters, as heatwaves, droughts and floods threaten the lives of millions

November 2015

  • 21/01/2015 Democratic Republic of The Congo. Refugees arriving from Central African Republic.Refugees from fighting in CAR getting a hair cut at the unoffical camp by the river Ubangi at Gbangara near Dula.Photo Sean Smith For Cities

    double quotation markRefugee crisis must not deflect us from our long-term development aims

    Helen Clark and Erik Solheim
    Proposals in parts of Europe to cut aid budgets and use the money for taking in refugees pose a threat to the goals of eradicating poverty and reducing inequality

July 2014

  • An International Red Cross plane drops supplies in South Sudan

    Poverty matters blog
    double quotation markFrom Syria to South Sudan, the need to be prepared has never been greater

    Helen Clark
    Helen Clark: Despite overwhelming evidence that a stitch in time saves nine, aid spending on prevention and preparedness remains tiny

March 2014

  • Helen Clark

    Voices from the south
    Seven women to watch in global politics

    For International Women's Day, UNDP leader and former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark picks seven women who are leading positive change all over the world

September 2013

  • MDG : Peace and development : East Timorese arrive at the Dili market, Timor Leste

    Poverty matters blog
    Peace and stability must be at the heart of the global development agenda

    Helen Clark: world leaders should include conflict prevention in the framework to succeed the millennium development goals

September 2009

  • Houses sit nestled in a hillside in a typical rural landscape in Rwanda

    Cif green
    double quotation markA green deal for rich and poor nations

    Helen Clark

    Helen Clark: The UN climate change summit must not only seek to protect the planet but fight poverty as well

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