Women Deliver 2026: A Week That Shifted the Conversation
May 21 | 5 minute read
Words by The MECCA Memo
The last week of April saw Women Deliver – one of the largest gender equality conferences in the world – roll into Melbourne, bringing together leaders, advocates, founders and changemakers from across the globe. It felt like a real-time reminder of what actually happens when women aren’t just invited into the room, but when the room itself is built with them in mind.
Across a series of events hosted by MECCA M-POWER – from conversations on women’s health innovation and climate leadership, to discussions on power, policy and systems change with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his long-time Chief of Staff Katie Telford – one idea kept resurfacing: when the right people come together, ideas sharpen, momentum builds and progress for women and girls moves faster.
The week kicked off with a dinner party – with a difference. Alongside Women’s Agenda and Sentiment Agency, MECCA M-POWER brought together an extraordinary group of female founders, innovators, researchers, investors and operators to ask one urgent question: what would it take for Australia to truly lead in women’s health innovation? It‘s a question made all the more urgent by the fact that just 1 percent of global healthcare R&D funding goes to women's health outside of oncology.
The conversation from that night is still sitting with us; from the structural barriers that continue to restrain innovation in this space and the impact on women’s health, to the untapped opportunities led by game-changing Australian femtech entrepreneurs. As Assoc. Prof Helen Frazer put it, “Australia can lead – but only if belief is matched with real investment and co-ordinated action.”
Stay tuned for our Insights Paper from the evening and our plan to turn conversation into action…
Reflecting on Canada’s first gender-balanced federal cabinet – established by the Trudeau government in 2015 – Telford said: “When you’re putting together a federal cabinet, there’s no question that the different states… are represented. Why is there a question about women being represented at the table in the same way?”
The takeaway was clear: gender equality cannot be treated as symbolic or performative; it must be embedded into how decisions are made. Real change, they reminded us, doesn’t just happen in the spotlight, but in the quieter work of reshaping systems from within.
That same energy carried into the Young Women’s Climate Summit, hosted by ActionAid Australia at our MECCA Support Centre, and featuring 40 dynamic climate leaders from across Australia and the Pacific who are already shaping the conversation – not waiting to be invited into it.
During the conference itself, we also had the opportunity to experience a powerful photographic exhibition captured by Harriet Pratten for ActionAid, documenting women leading climate action in Vanuatu. One of those women, Flora Vanu, joined us in person to share her story. Speaking candidly about the intersection of climate change and gender-based violence, she reminded us that “anything that gives us knowledge and information is power”. It was the quote that grounded the whole week.
Over breakfast at MECCA’s Support Centre, we gathered with our Co-Impact Gender Fund partners and heard firsthand from women leading systems change work on the ground across Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Joyce Wanderi of Girl Effect described watching gender roles quietly shift in communities where fathers had never traditionally been involved in childcare – women not just transforming their own lives, but reshaping what fatherhood looks like around them.
And Sivananthi Thanenthiran of ARROW reminded us that rights aren’t abstract – they’re realised in the moment a woman walks into a clinic and is treated with dignity and trust.
In a week of big rooms and bold conversations, this breakfast was the most grounding reminder of all: that progress is ultimately shaped by the women doing the work every day, in their own communities.
To close out the week, Justin and Katie returned for an intimate Lunch and Learn with the MECCA team – a reminder that turning intent into action requires not just big ideas, but the follow-through to carry them beyond the room.
If this week taught us anything, it’s that ideas alone don’t create change – the people, organisations and communities behind them do. That’s exactly what MECCA M-POWER exists to support, and we are excited by the momentum and opportunities to take these ideas forward to progress change. Follow this work at @MECCAMPOWER or visit www.mecca.com/en-au/m-power/.
And together, let’s make the world over!
