Why this Moment

The Women Deliver 2026 Conference (WD2026) took place at a moment of relentless attacks on gender equality. Anti-rights actors are well-organized, well-funded, and emboldened. Conflict, climate change, economic instability, and shrinking civic space are reshaping the lives of millions of girls, women, and gender-diverse people.

At the Opening Ceremony of WD2026, Women Deliver President and CEO Dr. Maliha Khan named the deeper problem plainly: the systems meant to deliver gender equality are not working for those they were built to serve. The gender equality ecosystem has been shaped by donor priorities and weak accountability to people. When sustained opposition arrived, the institutional architecture crumbled. WD2026 was designed to respond — a demand that States be held to their human rights obligations.

Dr. Maliha Khan shares remarks from the Women Deliver Plenary stage.

For the first time, the Women Deliver Conference was regionally hosted by the Oceanic Pacific, taking place in Narrm (Melbourne), Australia, on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Peoples of the Kulin Nation. Bringing the Conference to the Oceanic Pacific was intentional. The region faces some of the sharpest impacts of climate change, inequality, and under-investment in girls and women, while being home to powerful feminist, First Nations, and youth-led movements rooted in generations of resistance. Centering this region was itself an act of shifting power.

The Conference was built through co-creation from the start. A Global Coordination Group of partners from across regions helped shape the goals, program, and strategic narratives of WD2026. The Melbourne Declaration for Gender Equality, launched at WD2026, was developed through more than 50 global consultations involving 900 participants across regions, generations, and movements.