The 2025 Asia-Pacific WEPs Forum will bring together 150 participants from WEPs signatories, SMEs, corporates, regulators, stock exchanges, policymakers, industry associations, investors, government agencies and development partners, to shift from commitments to concrete collaboration and accelerated action for gender equality.
Register here to participate online
Launched in 2010 by UN Women and UN Global Compact, the WEPs are a set of 7 principles guiding private sector action for gender equality across the value chain, beginning with leadership and providing guidance for the workplace, marketplace and community, underpinned by a strong emphasis on accountability and transparent reporting of progress. To date, more than 11,000 companies have signed the WEPs globally, of which over 3,000 are in Asia-Pacific.
While the region has seen an increase in commitments from key public and private stakeholders to advance gender-responsive business conduct, an ‘action gap’ exists between commitments and tangible steps to implementation. Accelerating action requires rethinking existing models and building new partnerships to deepen impact, scale innovation, and foster systemic change. Following the inaugural Asia-Pacific WEPs Forum in 2023, the 2025 Asia-Pacific Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Forum: Business. Innovation. Impact. will build on growing momentum, bringing together businesses, regulators, stock exchanges, thought leaders, innovators, and others to shift from commitments to concrete collaboration and action across the region.
The Forum is organized as part of The UN Women Gender Action Lab: Innovation and Impact for Gender Equality in Asia-Pacific, launched in 2024, in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The Gender Action Lab (GAL) is a multipurpose platform, which leverages the WEPs to accelerate action towards gender-responsive business conduct, by fostering innovative solutions to gender equality in the private sector, across the value chain, and subsequently contributes to the growth of more inclusive economies across Asia-Pacific.
The Forum is also supported by UN Women’s program WE RISE Together (WRT) – Advancing gender-responsive procurement in the Mekong subregion. Funded through the Australian Government’s Mekong–Australia Partnership, WRT provides a complementary and reinforcing framework by promoting Gender-Responsive Procurement (GRP) and strengthening the capacity of Women-Owned Businesses (WOBs) and Gender-Responsive Enterprises (GREs) in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
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