Manahil Hameed grew up in a small town – Balochistan, Pakistan – where women rarely enter technical fields: but she refused to let that define her future. Through Schneider Electric’s Youth Education & Entrepreneurship Program, supported by the Schneider Electric Foundation, she gained technical and business skills in energy management. She launched her own women-led electrical company, becoming Balochistan’s first female electrician.
UN Women India convenes government, multilateral, and private-sector leaders — including a CXO-level roundtable with corporate leaders from Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) signatory companies — to advance young women's transition from skilling to sustained employment.
UN Women India, in partnership with the Federation of European Businesses in India (FEBI) and with support from the European Union under the Women Empower India (WE India) Programme, organized a half-day session on "Equality Means Business: Advancing Gender Equality through the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)" on 2 July 2026 at UN House, New Delhi.
The EU–UN Joint Programme Empowered Women, Prosperous Nepal (EWPN), in collaboration with private sector associations, convened businesses, private sector leaders, cooperatives, and aggregators in Madhesh, Sudurpaschim and Karnali provinces for a Provincial Workshop on Gender-Responsive Procurement (GRP) — with one shared goal: markets that include women aren't just more equal, they're more effective.
To mark the International Day of Women in Industry, UN Women and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Colombia brought together partners for a conversation on “Gender-Responsive Industry: Tools and Lessons from the WEPs.” The initiative included a webinar and the promotion of stories featuring women leaders from sectors such as services, aquaculture, energy, and health.
Every July, government leaders, UN officials and civil society converge on New York for the HLPF to take stock of the SDGs. This year, UN Women used the moment to accelerate progress on one of the clearest opportunities on the table: global supply chains, and the millions of workers within them.
Photo: Megan Gilgan, UN Women (L) with Dr Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development Germany (R) | UN Women / Ryan Brown
Organizations increasingly face expectations from employees, regulators, investors, and society to demonstrate that their commitment to gender equality is producing measurable results. During this webinar organized by the UN Women WEPs Secretariat and the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation on 30 June 2026, experts shared practical guidance on equal pay certification, highlighting how organizations can strengthen accountability, improve governance, and embed pay equity into everyday business decisions.
What would happen if tomorrow, your company had to publicly explain its pay decisions?
This is no longer a hypothetical. Across the world, equal pay is moving from a principle companies support to a reality they must prove. And for many organizations, the shift is happening faster than expected.
When companies talk about gender equality, the conversation often starts inside their own walls—equal pay, leadership representation, workplace culture. But as one recent UN Women webinar revealed, the real test lies elsewhere: in the supply chain.
Launching the WEPs Gender-Responsive Procurement Toolbox, the discussion brought together companies and experts to answer one central question—how do you turn commitments into action?
Companies are increasingly expected to demonstrate real progress on gender equality. The WEPs Transparency & Accountability Roadmap is designed to help companies develop systems and structures to keep track of, drive and communicate their progress towards gender equality. In April 2026 the WEPs Secretariat and the Watch & Jewelry Initiatives 2030 organized sessions to introduce the WEPs Transparency & Accountability Roadmap so companies can start using the resource.
