From Reflection to Action: Preparing for the 2027 WEPs Survey
Description
From Reflection to Action
Preparing Your Organisation for the 2027 Women's Empowerment Principles Survey
Wednesday 21 October 2026 | 12.00pm – 1.30pm NZST
Online Zoom
Great organisations don't prepare for the WEPs Survey in January, they start today.
The Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Survey is more than a reporting exercise. It is an opportunity to reflect on your organisation's progress, celebrate achievements, identify opportunities for growth and benchmark your journey alongside leading organisations across Aotearoa.
As the third and final event in the WEPs Learning Series 2026, this practical online workshop has been designed to ensure organisations are well prepared before the 2027 Women's Empowerment Principles Survey opens on 1 February 2027.
Whether you're completing the survey for the first time or looking to build on previous submissions, this session will provide practical guidance, tools and insights to help your organisation confidently prepare.
We'll explore how to gather meaningful evidence, engage leaders across your organisation, and use the survey as a catalyst for continuous improvement not just an annual reporting requirement.
During this session we'll explore:
Understanding the purpose and value of the Women's Empowerment Principles Survey.
A practical walkthrough of the 2027 survey framework.
What evidence to begin gathering before the survey opens.
Engaging Boards, Executive Teams and leaders across your organisation.
Measuring progress across the Seven Women's Empowerment Principles.
Common challenges and practical approaches to completing the survey.
How the survey contributes to the 2027 White Camellia Awards and recognising organisational leadership.
Featured contributors include:
UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand
Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Committee NZ
Current WEPs Signatories sharing practical insights from their survey journey.
Previous White Camellia Award recipients and organisational leaders.
Who should attend?
This session is designed for:
Current Women's Empowerment Principles Signatories
Organisations preparing to become WEPs Signatories
CEOs and Executive Leadership Teams
Board Directors
People & Culture and HR Leaders
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Professionals
Sustainability and ESG Leaders
Anyone responsible for leading or contributing to their organisation's WEPs journey
Why attend?
Preparing early enables organisations to gather richer insights, engage the right people and tell a more meaningful story about their progress.
By attending this session, your organisation will:
Understand how to confidently prepare for the 2027 WEPs Survey.
Learn what leading organisations do differently.
Receive practical tools to support internal planning and evidence gathering.
Be better positioned for the 2027 White Camellia Awards.
Connect with a growing community of organisations committed to creating more inclusive, resilient and future-ready workplaces.
Every participating organisation will receive:
As part of your registration, you'll receive access to the WEPs Survey Preparation Toolkit, including:
A PDF copy of the 2027 Women's Empowerment Principles Survey.
The 2024/25 New Zealand WEPs Survey Report.
A Survey Preparation Checklist.
An Evidence Collection Guide to support cross-organisational engagement.
Information about the 2027 White Camellia Awards.
Ongoing opportunities to engage with UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand and the WEPs Committee through thought leadership, workshops, board engagement and advisory support.
Wherever your organisation is on its WEPs journey, this series is designed to support you to move from commitment to meaningful and measurable impact.
Across the three events, we’ll explore the Seven Women’s Empowerment Principles as a practical framework for organisational change—moving from understanding, through leadership and reflection, to action.
Join us to learn from evidence and organisational experience, strengthen your approach, and prepare for the 2027 WEPs Survey with greater clarity, confidence and purpose.
The UN Women Empowerment Committee NZ is lead by UN Women Aotearoa NZ in partnership with Zonta, Business & Professional Women and The Human Rights Commission.
Gallery
Description
This event is part of the WEPs Learning Series 2026
Join us across three online leadership forums designed to support organisations on their Women's Empowerment Principles journey—from understanding the framework, to celebrating leadership, and preparing for the 2027 WEPs Survey and White Camellia Awards.
Part One | Building Future-Ready Organisations through the Women's Empowerment Principles
Thursday 3 September| 12.00pm–1.30pm
Explore key insights from the 2024/25 New Zealand WEPs Survey Report, hear from current WEPs Signatories, and discover how organisations are embedding the Women's Empowerment Principles to strengthen leadership, culture and organisational performance.
Part Two | From the Right to Vote to the Power to Lead
Friday 18 September | 12.00pm–1.30pm
Celebrating Suffrage Day, this inspiring leadership forum explores the legacy of women's leadership in Aotearoa and how organisations can continue creating workplaces where women can lead, belong and thrive. Hear from business and community leaders sharing practical examples of organisational change and inclusive leadership.
Part Three | From Reflection to Action
Wednesday 21 October | 12.00pm–1.30pm
A practical session designed to prepare organisations for the 2027 Women's Empowerment Principles Survey. We'll walk through the survey, discuss evidence gathering and measurement, and provide practical guidance to help your organisation confidently prepare for the 2027 White Camellia Awards.
We encourage organisations to register for all three events to gain the greatest value from the series and build a strong foundation for embedding the Women's Empowerment Principles across your organisation.
Lineup
Opening Remarks: Tara Singh, UN Women Aotearoa NZ
President, UN Women Aotearoa NZ and Chair - Women's Empowerment Committee NZ
Facilitator: Catherine van der Meulen, UN Women Aotearoa NZ
Catherine van der Meulen has spent the past four years on the Board of UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand, including three years contributing to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Committee NZ. Today, she is focused on driving the next generation of impact of UN Women Aotearoa NZ through strategic partnerships and philanthropy, bringing businesses, leaders, communities and capital together to accelerate meaningful change. What drives Catherine is deeply personal. At the current rate of progress, the prospect of gender equality remaining generations away keeps her up at night. She believes we need to move beyond conversations about equality and create the conditions, systems and organisational cultures that will accelerate it. As a mother, Catherine’s measure of impact is also the world the next generation will inherit. She is passionate about creating a future in which her children, and all young people, can thrive, where equality is embedded into how we lead, work and live, and where businesses recognise the extraordinary role they can play in shaping that future. Through WEPs, Catherine is working to shift gender equality from being seen primarily as a people or DEI initiative to becoming part of how organisations think about leadership, resilience, risk, performance and their long-term impact on society.
Janet Gibb - Business and Professional Women New Zealand
Janet Gibb is the current President of Business and Professional Women New Zealand (BPW NZ), following more than 15 years of active involvement in the organisation at local and national levels. Her leadership has taken her from communities across Aotearoa to regional BPW gatherings in Asia Pacific and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York. A Justice of the Peace, director and trustee, Janet brings extensive experience in governance, advocacy and relationship-building. At the heart of her work is a commitment to supporting and mentoring women and girls to grow their confidence, embrace new opportunities and realise their potential.
Speaker: Professor Gail Pacheco, PhD
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Professor Gail Pacheco is the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission. A leading economist, she has previously been the Director of the NZ Policy Research Institute at AUT and a Commissioner at the NZ Productivity Commission. She has an extensive track record of social policy-focused research, often leading large-scale collaborations between academia, community organisations, and the public sector. Gail has been the recipient of numerous awards. These include: the 2018 NZIER Economics Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of economics and its applications in NZ; the AUT Medal in 2019 in recognition of her use of integrated data to inform social policy and wellbeing; and most recently, in 2025, she was awarded Life Membership of the New Zealand Association of Economists, an honour reserved for individuals who have made significant contributions to both the association and the economics profession in NZ. - Value of the data from previous experiences running the Women's Empowerment Principles Survey with NZPRI - How stakeholders utilise the case studies "I hope that firms will be able to use case studies and empirical evidence to improve their performance"
Speaker: Jarrod Coburn | CEO/Kaiwhakahaere Matua, Portia
Jarrod Coburn is part-owner and CEO/Kaiwhakahaere Matua of Portia, bringing a background spanning people, community, systems and technology across government, private industry and the NGO sector. A futurist at heart, Jarrod is particularly interested in the intersection of technology, ethics and social good. As part of our WEPs Learning Series, Jarrod will share practical insights into the importance of participating in the WEPs Survey, its connection to the White Camellia Awards, and why the real value lies not simply in recognition, but in using the process to strengthen organisational responsibility, equality and impact.
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