In a message commemorating International Women's Day 2015 on 8 March, UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said gender equality must be reached before 2030, because until currently, not a single country has achieved gender equality.

In her letter on Tuesday, Mlambo-Ngcuka called on all countries to "step it up" for gender equality, in order to reach 'Planet 50:50' before 2030.

'Planet 50:50' was a new initiative unveiled by UN women as the next phase in the ‘HeForShe’ campaign which began at the Davos Forum.

UN Women global goodwill ambassador Emma Watson said that “Women share this planet 'fifty-fifty' and they are under-represented, their potential astonishingly untapped. We are very excited to be launching IMPACT 10x10x10 to bring the HeForShe into the next phase.”

The HeForShe campaign’s IMPACT 10X10X10 initiative is a pilot effort dedicated to engage governments, corporations and universities in order to address deficiencies in women’s empowerment.

As mentioned in the website of UN women, each party invoved in the initiative is to propose approaches for addressing gender inequality, and test the effectiveness of these approaches.

The year 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

"The Bejing Declaration is considered the most comprehensive blueprint on advancing women’s rights, the 1995 Beijing roadmap was adopted by 189 governments. But 20 years on, the commitments made are only partially fulfilled," said Watson.

Mlambo-Ngcuka also added in her message that there has been progress on women's rights in the past 20 years; however it has been slow and uneven.

The UN Women chief added that it is more urgent than ever that we stick to a time frame.

She explained that there has been progress in regards to gender gaps in education, as well as a reduction in maternal mortality, though that also the world still hasn't achieved gender equality.

She continued to say, that for many women, especially in developing countries, change has not been seen. Violence against women persists all over the world and in Africa, 70 per cent of crop production depends on women yet they still own only two per cent of the land.

"Empower women, empower humanity. I am sure you can picture an equal world!,"  she said.