The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE) initiative participated in the 2025 UN Women Asia-Pacific Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Forum, contributing to high-level discussions on how capital markets can accelerate progress on gender equality across the region.

UN SSE Project Officer Landon Wilcock delivered a talk emphasizing the critical role of data, measurement, and transparent reporting in driving meaningful change. He highlighted the UN SSE’s ongoing work with stock exchanges, regulators, and market participants to strengthen gender-related disclosure, improve data availability, and support implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

As part of the Forum, Mr. Wilcock also led an interactive session for capital market leaders, focusing on practical actions and global best practices that stock exchanges, regulators, and institutional investors can adopt to advance gender equality. The session explored pathways to enhance corporate reporting, scale gender-lens investing, improve board and senior leadership representation, and integrate gender metrics into sustainable finance frameworks.

Launch of the Asia-Pacific Sustainable Finance Systems Lab

This year’s Forum also marked the launch of the Asia-Pacific Sustainable Finance Systems Lab, a new platform designed to convene and empower capital market stakeholders committed to gender equality. The Lab is being established by UN Women in strategic partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, and the World Federation of Exchanges, as part of the broader Gender Action Lab supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Systems Lab will bring together exchanges, regulators, investors, and other market actors to collaborate, learn, and innovate, with the aim of generating measurable impact on gender equality across Asia-Pacific.

Strengthening Market-Led Action for Gender Equality

The UN SSE looks forward to continued collaboration through the Systems Lab and the WEPs community, supporting the transformative potential of capital markets in advancing equality and sustainability. The 2025 Asia-Pacific WEPs Forum provided a valuable platform to reinforce the importance of robust data, transparent reporting, and coordinated action in accelerating gender-inclusive economic growth.

Learn more about the UN SSE's work on Gender Equality here.