The Region

The Asia Pacific region is our home. For nearly 35 years the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) has worked with local organisations across this diverse part of the world towards our vision of gender equality for all. Since women and girls in this region face ongoing barriers to leadership and rights, we work with partners to understand and respond to the unique challenges facing women throughout Asia and the Pacific.

We work in partnership with 26 organisations and as part of alliances to ensure the voices of women across Asia and the Pacific are heard. Our work focuses on women’s leadership and participation, safety and security, economic empowerment, and systemic change.

Partnering for change

IWDA employs a rights-based, feminist approach to partnership. This underpins our work with all partners and is why we work with local women’s organisations and networks, recognising they are the most effective agents of change with the deepest understanding of their context.

This partnership model reflects our experience that strengthening women’s ability to act collectively is key to long-lasting change in the context of inequality and marginalisation.

In recent years, IWDA has scaled up to work on larger, multi-country programs such as Women’s Action for Voice and Empowerment (WAVE). This ground-breaking women’s leadership program brings together and supports individual women, organisations and movements in Asia and the Pacific region to increase the representation of women in diverse leadership positions.

Our alliances

Throughout Asia and the Pacific we work with forums and networks to amplify women’s voices and experiences on the global stage.

A key part of our work is leveraging these alliances to ensure the voices of women in Asia and the Pacific are heard in the corridors of power. We work with and mobilise women from the region to attend global forums such as the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, and seek their input in Australia when Pacific voices are missing from key debates.