UN Women is partnering with Srikandi BUMN, Danantara, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises and Forum Human Capital Indonesia to launch the first Women’s Empowerment Principles Corporate Action Lab (WEPsCAL) in Indonesia. 

The initiative brings together a committed group of companies to build more gender-inclusive workplaces through a journey of capacity-building and action until early 2026.

WEPsCAL in Indonesia continues the partnership between UN Women and Srikandi BUMN to accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment in the business sector. This partnership was formalized in February 2025.

WEPsCAL is a flagship initiative under the UN Women Gender Action Lab: Innovation and Impact for Gender Equality in Asia-Pacific, a regional innovation platform supported by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This dynamic, cohort-based platform is designed to support companies in assessing their progress and in using data, tailored tools and targeted support to innovate and implement actionable gender equality strategies aligned with Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) focus areas.

Although research shows that increasing women’s representation in the workforce can generate significant economic gains, the employment gender gap in Indonesia—and globally—remains a challenge. According to Statistics Indonesia, the female labour force participation rate has been stagnant at around 50 per cent for decades. Limited access to resources, discriminatory practices and cultural norms—including women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work—continue to hinder their ability to enter and thrive in the workforce. The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance reported in 2018 that 1.7 million women aged 20–24 left their jobs due to marriage or childbirth.

This initiative responds to persistent barriers that continue to limit women’s participation in the workforce—barriers that remain deeply entrenched in Indonesia and across the region. Indonesia’s first WEPs Corporate Action Lab was themed ‘Accelerating Corporate Action for Family-Friendly Workplaces’. Twelve companies—WEPs Changemakers—spanning diverse industries and organizational sizes are participating in the inaugural cohort. They will apply the WEPs to drive transformative change in creating family-friendly workplaces that promote gender equality and enable women to succeed in the labour market. 

Participating companies are:

• Perum Perumnas
• Perusahaan Umum Lembaga Penyelenggara Pelayanan Navigasi Penerbangan Indonesia (AirNav Indonesia)
• PT Aviasi Pariwisata Indonesia (Persero)
• PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk
• PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk
• PT Bio Farma (Persero)
• PT Mineral Industri Indonesia (Persero)
• PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Persero)
• PT Pertamina
• PT PLN (Persero)
• PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero)
• PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk

“At Danantara, we recognize that inclusive and gender-responsive workplaces are not only a moral imperative, but a strategic cornerstone for sustainable institutional transformation. Our participation in WEPsCAL reflects our deep commitment to advancing women’s empowerment across the state-owned enterprise ecosystem and supporting Indonesia’s broader vision for equitable and resilient national development,” said Wiwik Wahyuni, Senior Director HC Transformation & Talent Development, Danantara Indonesia.

“Indonesia and Australia are on a shared journey toward women’s economic equality. By partnering with UN Women, it is expected that the program can contribute to achieving Indonesia’s target of 70 per cent female labour force participation by 2045,” said Sophie Mackinnon, Acting Counsellor, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

"Family-friendly policies in the workplace are not only a means to advancing women's economic empowerment, but also a one step forward towards transforming social norms by helping women and men to challenge gender roles and promoting shared caregiving responsibilities," said Dwi Yuliawati, Head of Programmes, UN Women Indonesia. "Through this initiative, we are excited to witness the WEPs changemakers in starting their journey to foster an inclusive workplace. We trust that the initiative from the first cohort will create important multiplier effects, including increased women's labour force participation."

Looking ahead, the WEPs Changemakers will develop new strategies and pilot solutions tailored to their companies’ needs and goals for building more inclusive workplaces. The WEPsCAL in Indonesia will run through early 2026, during which the participating companies will engage in one-on-one capacity-building and technical support, cohort-sharing sessions and regional learning exchange sessions with other WEPsCAL cohorts and WEPs Signatories. The cohort model will foster shared learning and mutual support.

The launch of Indonesia’s WEPs Corporate Action Lab marks a significant step towards advancing gender equality in the business sector. It strongly aligns with Indonesia’s priorities on women’s economic empowerment, as reflected in the Roadmap Care Economy 2025–2045 and the Indonesian Golden Vision 2045.

The WEPs provide a globally recognized framework for companies of all sizes and sectors to adopt gender-responsive policies and practices across their value chains. Globally, 11,000 companies have committed to the WEPs, including 219 in Indonesia.

WEPsCAL is also being implemented in Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines under the Gender Action Lab.

In 2025, UN Women Yemen played a leading coordination role in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment that placed women’s voices at the center of collective UN action through a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to inform the next strategic cooperation framework. The consultations were organized as part of broader analytical and planning processes aimed at strengthening gender-responsive programming and ensuring that the voices, priorities, and lived realities of Yemeni women and girls are foundational to strategic action for the country's future.

As a strategic coordination initiative, the FGDs served as a key mechanism to integrate women’s perspectives into system-wide analysis and planning. Through this process and in partnership with the UN Country Team, UN Women Yemen ensured that women’s experiences were included for more understanding of Yemen’s path forward regarding the humanitarian response, economic recovery, governance, and access to essential services. The consultations provided a platform for diverse groups of women, including entrepreneurs, women heads of households, young women, displaced women, women with disabilities and women affected by conflict to share their perspectives on the challenges they face and the opportunities they identify for strengthening resilience and recovery.

Adopting gender-responsive and conflict-sensitive approaches, UN Women contributed to the conceptualization and methodological design of the consultation process, led by the Resident Coordinator's Office. The discussions explored critical areas of women’s empowerment, including economic participation, access to services, leadership and decision-making, and structural and socio-cultural barriers limiting women’s opportunities. Particular focus was placed on women’s access to economic opportunities, barriers related to small and medium enterprise development, access to markets and finance, unpaid care responsibilities, mobility restrictions, and engagement with public institutions.

Beyond technical leadership, UNW YCO played a central coordination role in convening partners across the UN system, national stakeholders, civil society organizations, and women-led networks. This collaborative approach ensured alignment with national priorities and international normative frameworks, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Through these partnerships, UN Women supported the mainstreaming of gender equality and women’s empowerment as a cross-cutting priority across sectors and institutional processes.

The consultations also strengthened collaboration across humanitarian, development, and peace actors operating in Yemen. By generating qualitative insights on women’s experiences and priorities, the consultations helped build a shared understanding of gender-specific vulnerabilities and opportunities for empowerment. These insights informed coordinated programme design, policy dialogue, and advocacy efforts among UN agencies and partners.

Importantly, the consultations strengthened the UN system’s evidence base on gender equality in Yemen. The findings complemented existing analytical work and fed directly into the UN system’s foundational assessment of development challenges and opportunities in the country. By ensuring that women’s perspectives were captured and reflected within this process, UN Women played a key role in strengthening the integration of gender analysis within system-wide strategic planning.

“Through this initiative, UN Women has demonstrated the power of coordinated, evidence-based engagement in ensuring that the voices of women and girls are not only heard but systematically shape the UN system’s priorities and responses in Yemen. This work reinforces our commitment to placing gender equality at the centre of humanitarian, development, and peace efforts.”- Dina Zorba, UN Women Yemen- Country Representative.

Looking ahead, the insights generated through these consultations will shape priorities under the upcoming United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). The consultations support efforts to ensure that gender equality, women’s leadership, and economic empowerment remain central pillars of the UN’s collective engagement in the country.

Ultimately, the consultation process illustrates how inclusive dialogue and coordinated leadership can strengthen the integration of gender equality across institutional systems. Through its convening power, technical expertise, and coordination mandate, UN Women Yemen continues to ensure that women’s/ girls’ priorities are essential to Yemen’s recovery and long-term development trajectory.

The European Union, UNDP, and UN Women launched a new regional initiative to accelerate gender equality and empower women in the Western Balkans. Coming at a time when the world marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most visionary agenda for women’s rights, the programme reflects a shared commitment to sustained progress in a changing global landscape.

The three-year initiative, entitled EU4GE Regional Programme on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Ending Violence Against Women, will be implemented in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, and it will focus on increasing women's participation in leadership, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and green sectors, while also tackling violence against women, including online and technology-facilitated forms.

Enrica Chiozza, Head of Sector for Civil Society, Social Inclusion, and Human Capital Development at the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood of the European Commission, stated that while important strides have been made, achieving full gender equality in the Western Balkans requires continued commitment and collaboration. “The EU remains unwavering in its support – working closely with international organizations, regional partners, and national governments – to empower women, dismantle systemic barriers, and build a more just and inclusive society for all.”

Ivana Zivkovic, Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator and Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, underscored the programme’s transformative potential “New technologies are reshaping the world of work, but they are also becoming new arenas for violence and abuse. Yet despite these challenges, deliberate action, digital tools, and future-facing skills can become powerful equalizers - helping to connect women to markets, financing, knowledge, and networks that allow them to not just participate, but lead and thrive.”

Across the Western Balkans, more than half of women active online have experienced technology-facilitated violence, according to the 2023 study The Dark Side of Digitalization: Technology-facilitated violence against women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The most common forms include receiving unwanted or offensive content or messages (39.7%), inappropriate sexual advances or content via social media (30%), and hacking of personal accounts (25.4%).

The new EU4GE regional programme will respond to these issues by ensuring access to women to multi-sectoral, inclusive services and building capacities of institutions to deliver by improving the capacity of institutions to deliver coordinated, survivor-focused care. It will also equip women and girls with the knowledge and tools to recognize and report online and technology-facilitated violence.

Meanwhile, recent data highlights continued gender disparities in STEM fields. From 2019 to 2023, women comprised just 38.4 per cent of tertiary graduates in STEM programmes across Europe and Central Asia. In the labour market, their presence in the highest-paying STEM occupations is even more limited, with women holding just 14% of these roles. Beyond STEM, gender stereotypes continue to pose significant barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and labour participation, restricting their access to opportunities, resources, and support.

To close this gap, the programme will focus on dismantling structural barriers to women’s participation and unlocking greater economic opportunities for women in entrepreneurship, STEM, and emerging sectors by strengthening women’s leadership, leveraging the power of networks and regional cooperation, transforming deeply rooted gender perceptions.

Elisa Fernandez Saenz, UN Women Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia emphasized that the relevance of this programme cannot be overstated. “As we embark on this joint journey, let us reaffirm our commitment to creating a future where women live free from violence and have the opportunities to succeed and lead. I invite all stakeholders to join this mission and work together towards our shared goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment,” said Elisa Fernandez Saenz.

Sonja Lokar, an international civil society activist from Slovenia who attended the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the official launch of the programme, concluded by saying: “Keep our core values intact: equality, solidarity, freedom, inclusion, the right to life for all living things in this world, global peace! Resist the anti-gender movement and policies. Insist, persevere, and innovate!”

Through its dual focus on economic empowerment and freedom from violence for women, the new EU4GE regional programme will contribute to the realization of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, reinforcing the region’s commitment to gender equality.

^{* *For the European Union, this designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. For UN Women, references to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).}