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About the WEPs Awards

The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards is the first regional awards initiative that recognizes companies who are taking action for gender equality in the region aligned to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, with the ultimate objective to make good practices visible and encourage more business to take action by joining the WEPs. 

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The 2024 WEPs Awards is part of the new UN Women program Gender Action Lab (GAL): Innovation and Impact for Gender Equality in Asia-Pacific, powered by the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), supported by the Government of Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Under GAL, the WEPs Awards will become part of a two-year cycle with the WEPs Awards happening one year followed by a WEPs Forum the next year. The first cycle will begin with the 2024 WEPs Awards and culminate with the 2025 WEPs Forum.

May 2 - June 30

Applications open

Aug-Sep

Shortlisted applications notified by email

October

National WEPs Awards Ceremonies in select Asia-Pacific Countries

November

Regional WEPs Awards Ceremony

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Key Dates
(Tentative)

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2024 Categories

 In each of the following categories, one Winner, 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner up will be awarded.

2024 Highlighted Category

Innovative Financing for Gender Equality

Inspired by the 2024 International Women’s Day theme ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress,’ this category seeks to showcase the pivotal role that private sector financing plays in advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. This category will recognize financial institutions, investors, corporates, stock exchanges and others for exemplary and innovative efforts to design products and services, financial instruments, funds, investing frameworks and/or other innovative programs that advance gender equality. Examples of such efforts might include, among other things, issuing a gender bond, launching a gender-lens investing fund, leading the development of an innovative financing product and/or mechanism for women entrepreneurs, and developing tools or frameworks to accelerate and guide investments for gender equality. This category is not applicable to organizations that have only provided or facilitated financing for gender equality initiatives without substantial involvement in the design, implementation, and/or tracking of progress and results. 

Special Recognition

While organizations of any size or sector can be awarded, to recognize the valuable contributions of SMEs to the regional economy, three applicants from SMEs (smaller enterprises (< 200 employees)) across the 5 categories will be awarded as a WEPs Awards SME Champion.

Eligibility

Businesses, companies and enterprises (private, public, state-owned, cooperatives and social enterprises), including subsidiaries of multinationals and/or their branches, industry associations, stock exchanges and chambers of commerce from the following countries are eligible to apply. *For the Leadership awards, we encourage all individuals to apply and will consider of all nationalities as long as the nominated individual has established residency in the country of nomination and/or is a citizen of one of the Asia-Pacific countries.

Afghanistan 

Australia 
Bangladesh 
Bhutan 
Brunei 
Cambodia

China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan)

Cook Islands 
Fiji 
India 
Indonesia 
Japan 

Kiribati 

Laos 

Malaysia 

Maldives 
Mongolia 

Myanmar 

Nauru 
New Zealand 
Nepal 

Niue 
Pakistan 

Palau 
Philippines 
Papua New Guinea 

Republic of the Marshall Islands 

Samoa 
Singapore 
Solomon Islands 
South Korea 
Sri Lanka 
Thailand 

Timore-Leste 

Tokelau 
Tonga 

Tuvalu 

Vanuatu 
Vietnam 

*The WEPs Awards is a public recognition from UN Women and aligned to UN Women’s corporate standards and due diligence. As such, awards cannot be granted to companies that produce or sell alcohol, tobacco, armaments, adult entertainment and gambling products. The majority of these companies are still eligible to become WEPs signatories, and we encourage all of them to make the commitment and showcase their efforts for gender equality through engagement with the WEPs community.

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Selection Process

All applications will be submitted online and assessed through a standardized process that includes verification of supporting documents, due diligence, and judging by an external panel of neutral experts. The judging panel will be composed of external professionals with knowledge of the WEPs and private sector practices that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. They will act on a voluntary basis and receive detailed guidance for scoring in an effort to maximize consistency and objectivity. 

 

The awards will follow a multi-stage approach with national awards ceremonies in October in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam (countries in which UN Women has active WEPs programming), followed by a wider Asia-Pacific regional awards ceremony. Winners from the national awards ceremonies will be combined with a shortlist of applications from all other Asia-Pacific countries to form the nominee pool for the Regional Awards in November. 

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*The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards represents recognition of exemplary company efforts for gender equality and is limited to a designated category and a specific location and time period. Awarded organizations, alongside their products and services, receiving awards are not endorsed or affiliated with UN Women or WeEmpowerAsia and being recognized as an Awardee does not constitute a partnership. Claims, statements, or endorsements made by awardees are solely those of the individual or organization and do not represent official policies or positions of UN Women.
 

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