Helen Clark has hinted at reforming the 70-year-old United Nations should she take on the top job from 2017.
But the former Prime Minister is remaining cagey on whether she'll put her hat in the ring.
Current leader Ban Ki-moon's second term concludes at the end of next year, and he's not expected to seek a third. Convention dictates the next leader should come from eastern Europe, but with tension in the region between the West and Russia, the door could be open for someone from "little old New Zealand", as Ms Clark's former colleague and current Labour Party deputy Annette King puts it.
"I think it would be brilliant for New Zealand and she would do a fantastic job," Ms King said on TV3's Paul Henry programme this morning. "She has really reformed the UNDP since she got there, and it would be fantastic to have our first woman Secretary-General."
Ms Clark says she's watching the race with interest, particularly the campaigns calling for a woman to take on the role.
"There's a lot of interest whether this, as one of the remaining citadels that's never had a woman leader, will have one," says Ms Clark.
"IMF has Christine LaGarde, who does a fantastic job. The Federal Reserve has Janet Yellen, who does a fantastic job. These positions have never been occupied by women before. So of course there's interest in will this one, this time, go to a woman?"
Ms Clark has been head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2009, after being ousted as Prime Minister in the 2008 general election. It's been a tough few years in charge however.
"I came in when we were still in the heat of the global financial crisis, and initially the traditional donor countries didn't have austerity policies – they had prime-the-pump policies, and so the support for development kept on coming," she explains.
"But then they started to adjust their budgets. It's been very tough. I can tell you of one significant thunder where there was a change of government in the last couple of months, just cut their development budget by 43 percent… we're waiting to see what will happen to us."
The aftermath of financial crisis has coincided with the growing problems in Syria, which have seen millions displaced from their homes – 4 million of them across the border into neighbouring countries, and more than 7 million internally.
Ms Clark says the UNDP's mission is to stop it getting worse.
"We try to raise money to do things within Syria to get people back with their microbusiness – setting up the bakery, doing the clothes repair – because if the 7.5 million move towards the borders, that's just more chaos," she says.
"Think of Lebanon, which is probably the size of the Waikato. It's got a population the size of New Zealand, and more than 1 million people have gone over the border. Can you think what state we would be in if 1 million people turned up on our border? We'd be hysterical.
"I say full credit and tribute to the tolerance of the Lebanese and the Jordanians, who are in a similar position, for trying to cope."
Ms Clark says Mr Ban has stamped his mark on the UN with a renewed focus on climate change and sustainability, but hints she would like to go further with adapting the aging institution to the modern world.
"It's 70 years old… and it's very hard to change multilateral institutions. So 1945, the UN was formed, hard on the heels of that, the Bretton Woods institutions – the World Bank and the IMF – they are all difficult to reform.
"If things aren't reformed, then people find other outlets for their energy, and I find it interesting now we've got this proliferation of new development banks from the emerging economies – the BRICs' New Development Bank, the Asia Investment Infrastructure Bank, the Eurasian Development Bank – huge development banks in Brazil and other emerging economies. So institutions do need to reform."
But it'll be hard to achieve on her own.
"Is it more secretary than general? Because there's no army, right, and you have a board of 190-plus member states. But of course the person of the Secretary-General is important in leading people and setting directions."
While Ms Clark is yet to confirm she'll even go for the job, another powerful woman has launched her second bid to break one of the world's highest glass ceilings – Hillary Clinton. Ms Clark says if the former Secretary of State and First Lady is successful, she'll probably make a good US President – but so might her probable Republican opponent.
"She was a fantastic Secretary of State. She was good to the UNDP, she was very collegial with the UN, but Jeb Bush has also been a good Governor. He comes from a political family, both his brother and father were President. Wasn't it Barbara Bush who said, 'Can't there be more than two families to generate presidential candidates around here?'"
She didn't have much to say about Donald Trump, except to say he had a lot of competition with new Republican candidates appearing "every three days".
"I did see a headline in one of the papers that the Democrats saw an upside in what was happening," she laughs.
Ms Clark is back home to accept the top gong at the Kea World Class New Zealand Awards, last night telling Newsworthy whatever she does in her remaining years, when it comes to retire, she'll be coming home for good.
3 Newssource: newshub archive
