Beijing 25 years later

"Women's rights are human rights." Hillary Clinton's words are what most of us know about the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Better known just as "Beijing" or "Beijing 95," the conference where Clinton coined this famous phrase was important because of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that came out of it.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing meeting, taking stock of progress (or lack thereof) for women on the Beijing Platform seems timely.

Recently, I was on a panel convened and moderated by Rachel Vogelstein at the Council on Foreign Relations where we addressed this question. Melanne Verveer, who was actually present in Beijing and became the first US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues, was the first to speak. Markus Goldstein, Lead Economist and Head of the Africa Gender Innovation Lab at the World Bank, joined us.

The panel discussed the overall progress since Beijing as well as the situation under the pandemic, with particular emphasis on private sector activities. I think it was a refreshingly candid discussion and that many would enjoy watching it.

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