EMERGE MAGAZINE | WD2026 SERIES
100+ sessions. 12 pre-conferences. One Declaration. Women Deliver 2026 opens in Melbourne in six days — here is everything you need to know about what is on the agenda, and what Emerge will be covering for our community.
By Emerge Magazine | 21 April 2026 | emergemagazine.com.au
When Women Deliver 2026 opens its doors in Narrm (Melbourne) on 27 April, it will bring together more than 6,500 people from over 170 countries. The full program — released this week — makes clear that this is not a conference of speeches. It is structured around action, commitment, and a Declaration that will shape the international development sector for years to come.
As Emerge Magazine’s second dispatch in our WD2026 series, this piece walks through the program structure, the key themes, and what each element means for multicultural women in Greater Geelong and regional Victoria.
How the program is structured
WD2026 runs across four days, anchored by a series of high-level plenaries designed to move global conversation toward collective commitment. Surrounding those plenaries are more than 100 concurrent sessions and 12 pre-conferences — creating space for deeper exchange, practical collaboration, and community-specific learning.
The pre-conferences run across April 26 and 27, before the main program begins. They are where the detailed, community-specific work happens — and they are often where the most important conversations take place.
The pre-conferences: where our communities belong
The 12 pre-conferences cover: ending sexual and gender-based violence and FGM/C, adolescent girls’ leadership, First Nations leadership and global solidarity, youth leadership, climate justice, LGBTI inclusion, feminist funding, and inclusive data.
For communities like ours in Geelong — where women are navigating questions of safety, economic participation, cultural identity, and access to services every day — several of these pre-conferences speak directly to lived experience. Emerge will be focusing particularly on the First Nations leadership and feminist funding pre-conferences.
The plenaries: the global agenda
The opening ceremony, titled ‘Change Calls Us Here’, grounds the conference in First Nations leadership and the Oceanic Pacific — signalling that this is not a Western-centric event, and that Indigenous authority is foundational rather than ceremonial.
Key plenaries include ‘From Resistance to Renewal: Seizing the Moment to Build a Feminist Future’, which explores how to move beyond defending progress toward building systems fit for today’s realities. ‘Girls at the Centre: Power, Voice, and Investment’ calls on policymakers and funders to move from symbolic inclusion to shared power. ‘Women Are Not Negotiable: Conflict, Power, and Accountability’ examines how conflict and political systems shape outcomes for women globally.
The closing ceremony, ‘The Future Calls Us Here’, will mark the launch of the Declaration for the International Development Sector — a shared call to rebuild systems to better deliver for women and girls.
“At the heart of the conference is a central question: What must change so power, resources, and responsibility are better aligned to deliver justice for girls, women, and gender-diverse people?”
Explore the Women Deliver 2026 program
What Emerge will be covering
Emerge will publish daily dispatches from the conference floor beginning 27 April — available at emergemagazine.com.au. Our coverage will focus on the sessions and conversations most directly relevant to African, South Asian, South-East Asian, and broader multicultural women in regional Victoria.
We will also be conducting interviews with delegates, advocates, and community leaders in attendance — bringing their voices directly to our readers in Geelong.
Follow our coverage at emergemagazine.com.au and on Instagram and LinkedIn.
About Emerge Magazine
Emerge is Geelong’s multicultural community news publication, serving African, South Asian, South-East Asian, and broader CALD communities across Greater Geelong and regional Victoria. An IMMA member and Victorian Government grant recipient, Emerge is an official media partner for Women Deliver 2026. Visit emergemagazine.com.au
