March 8 marks International Women’s Day, a global day to celebrate and support women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. The day also marks a universal call to accelerate action for female equality, challenge gender stereotypes, and call out bias and discrimination.
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada embraces the 2026 International Women’s Day theme “Give To Gain,” emphasizing the power of reciprocity and support for women and gender-diverse causes. Contributing to women’s advancement through time, resources, knowledge-sharing, advocacy, education, or other means supports the empowerment of women’s voices. Giving support also means making strides to address harmful stereotypes, challenging discrimination, addressing underlying biases, and highlighting women’s success stories. International Women’s Day also recognizes the diversity of female inclusion, advocating for rights, equality, and empowerment “for all women and girls.” We stand beside like-minded organizations and institutions in supporting the work, achievements, ideas, and experiences of girls and women across Canada and around the world.
Our work in this space includes supporting women and girls in closing the gender gap and building the capacity of women-led businesses through the APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership (ACGBP), creating an international ecosystem of women assisting women in international business through the Canadian Women’s International Network (CanWIN), and providing Canadian women-led or -owned companies with the opportunity and support they need to access key markets and investors in Asia through our Women-only Business Mission Series.
We are thankful to the Government of Canada for supporting ACGBP and, through the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), our Women-only Business Missions and CanWIN. This WES funding, along with financial support from a number of private sector partners, has enabled the Foundation to increase women-only business missions to Asia and expand the networking activities of CanWIN. Through these and other efforts, APF Canada will continue to advocate for the advancement of women’s rights, equality, and empowerment.
This International Women’s Day, we encourage you to follow @womensday and use the hashtags #IWD2026 and #GiveToGain to highlight women’s voices.
Visit www.internationalwomensday.com to learn more about this important day of celebration and support for women.
