“If we look at Rwanda, for example, which is often viewed through the prism of President Kagame, 50 percent of its parliament are women. The country has made important, radical budgetary decisions both that are importance in terms of investing in women’s education but also in long term investments – over 10 years horizon,” she said. And having more women engaged, “Chancellor Merkel has also passed law for women to be included on board,” said Clinton.

These barriers and issues, said Clinton and her co-speaker, Anju Maholtra, UNICEF Principal Advisor for Gender and Development, including ending early child marriage, childbirth mortality and women inequality, should be discussed in less simulacrum ways.

They urged the international community and world leaders to add these issues to their top priority list for this year’s upcoming UN General Assembly meeting where new sustainable development goals will be discussed and set to replace the old Millennium goals that was set 15 years ago.