executive director phumzile mlambo-nqcuka says later u.n. initiatives such as the millennium development goals may have left out an important issue. >> a lot of the goals had strong relevance for women given that a sustainable impact in decreasing poverty depends on women. the goal that was meant to address gender equality, only picked up two aspects around women. one was on education and the other was on equality, especially more representation, as you know, gender inequality is much more complex than that, >> an ongoing concern across the globe is violence against women. >> violance is the most dehumanizing form of discrimination. when women are beaten up sometimes, it is because they are being demobilized from economic activity by a controlling partner and to some extent, that violence means that women's health-mental and physical health-is affected and they are unable to work. >> in some war-stricken countries, it's more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier. >> in all of those hot spots of the world you can look say with your eyes clos