Since the International Gender Champions’ (IGC) creation in 2015, the Panel Parity Pledge has been at the heart of Champions’ commitments. The Pledge, which asks all Gender Champions to no longer participate in single-gender panels, positions international leaders as role models for advancing inclusive leadership and decision-making.
The Panel Parity Pledge was originally designed to address the overall underrepresentation of women in panel discussions, and to encourage greater participation of men in conversations on gender equality. Over the past five years, on average, 79% of Champions responding to the IGC Annual Survey reported fully adhering to the Pledge. In 2025, over 55% evoked the Pledge to request gender balance from panel organisers, with a success rate of 35%.
Now, over a decade after its inception, the IGC Global Board has decided to raise the bar. The updated Panel Parity Pledge, launched in March 2026, expands its scope to reflect a more comprehensive understanding of power structures, inclusion, and full, equal, meaningful, effective and safe participation. While gender balance remains at its core, the Pledge now also promotes wider diversity and seeks to shift norms so that homogeneous panels become increasingly unacceptable.
Why this matters
Updating the Pledge is both a matter of principle and impact. It begins with justice: equal participation in decision-making is a right, not a privilege. And yet, in close to 80 years of UN history, a mere 7% of Permanent Representatives in New York have been women. In governing bodies across the UN system, women hold just 29% of seats on average. And out of 54 international organisations, 19 entities have never been run by a woman and 17 have elected a woman leader only once (GWL Voices 2026). Feminist approaches remind us that power must be shared and that we cannot build fair and effective policies while entire communities- often those most affected by global challenges- remain unheard. In the multilateral sphere, where high-level panel discussions continue to shape policy priorities, including diverse expert voices means ensuring that discussions reflect the societies they aim to serve. That is essential to build legitimacy and ownership.
At the same time, it is strategic: inclusion increases impact. Substantial evidence has been collected over recent years to show that diverse representation leads to better outcomes. The World Economic Forum (WEF) frames gender parity as “a competitive advantage in an increasingly tough macro-economic and business environment” (WEF, 2024) and highlights that where DEI efforts are longer-lasting, the returns follow with increased productivity, adaptability to change and stronger innovation outcomes. Research by McKinsey shows that companies with more than 30% women executives are more likely to outperform those with fewer or none at all, with similarly compelling numbers for companies in the top quartile of ethnic and cultural diversity. A study analysing approximately 600 business decisions made by 200 teams over two years found that diverse teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time, reach decisions twice as fast with half the meetings, and deliver 60% better results (Cloverpop 2017). Where conversations are not dominated by a narrow set of voices, they can accommodate a wider range of expertise, lived experiences, perspectives, and opinions. When accompanied by a genuinely inclusive environment, this diversity can translate into more innovative solutions, sounder risk assessments and more comprehensive political analysis.
The case for going further
Gender balance is an important part of inclusive decision-making, but it is insufficient on its own. Different social identities, including gender (identity), race, age, class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation or disability intersect to create experiences of privilege and marginalisation. Recognising this reality, the updated Panel Parity Pledge places intersectionality at its core, moving beyond gender balance alone to embrace a broader and more nuanced understanding of diversity.
This approach speaks directly to the context in which leaders operate today. Recent global crises- including the COVID‑19 pandemic and the rise in armed conflicts unfolding across the world- have exposed and intensified existing structural inequalities. They have demonstrated how different forms of discrimination can compound to deepen exclusion and vulnerability. These challenges are not abstract or theoretical; they are lived realities that demand effective responses.
It may seem counterintuitive to broaden the scope of the Pledge at a moment when inclusion work is in retreat. But the moment pressure mounts is precisely the wrong moment to settle for less. We are witnessing deliberate, coordinated pushback on gender equality, diversity, equity, and inclusion in legislatures, multilateral spaces, and public discourse. A big part of the anti‑gender movement’s success has been to erode ambition where progress feels fragile. At the IGC, our strategic answer to this shifting environment is not a smaller target, but a sharper, more intentional one. The new guidance accompanying the updated Panel Parity Pledge offers concrete language and additional tools to Champions and their teams, supporting them in taking a clear stance for equality.
Strengthening the Pledge is both timely and necessary. It reflects a commitment to addressing inequality in all its complexity, resists backsliding and aligns with a foundational principle of the Sustainable Development Agenda: Leaving no one behind.
What changes in practice
Inclusion requires deliberate design. By introducing additional considerations for panellists, moderators, and organisers, the updated Pledge shifts from presence to process. It encourages Champions and their teams to routinely ask more searching questions: who is missing from the conversation, and why? What systemic barriers explain their absence? How have the organisers structured the panel to ensure that all voices can be heard and participate meaningfully? And who is best placed to speak to the specific intersection of issues being discussed?
Moderators and organisers are invited to go beyond assembling diverse panels, and to proactively foster the conditions in which diverse voices can contribute fully and equitably. For instance, research undertaken at COP-26 showed that although women made up 37% of party delegations, they accounted for just 29% of speaking time in plenary (UNFCCC 2022). In addition to facilitating balanced participation through active management of speaking time, the updated Panel Parity Pledge also includes provisions on addressing and challenging discriminatory language when it arises, as well as integrating accessibility considerations from the outset rather than treating them as an afterthought. Practical choices matter too: factors as simple as the timing or location of an event can significantly shape who is able to take part.
The Pledge also recognises that participation in public discussions is not always risk‑free. Civil society actors and (women) human or environmental rights defenders, in particular, may face personal or professional repercussions for speaking publicly. Organisers are therefore encouraged to take these risks seriously and to put appropriate safeguards in place, with updated Pledge Guidance providing referral to existing resources.
Finally, the Pledge promotes a shift in how panellists are framed and welcomed to ensure diverse experts are invited for the breadth and depth of their expertise, rather than reduced to a single aspect of their identity or treated as the spokesperson of a particular group.
The standard we want to set
The updated Panel Parity Pledge is designed around a standard we want to make reflexive: one in which full inclusion and diverse panels are the default, not the exception. It offers both a concrete process and a reflective exercise for panellists, moderators and organisers. By integrating gender balance and broader diversity considerations from the outset, the Pledge seeks to encourage deliberate, inclusive choices until they become second nature. The ultimate measure of success will be when these practices are so embedded that they no longer require a Pledge.
Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, Co-Founder of the International Gender Champions
It is hard to remember now, but in 2015, when we co-founded International Gender Champions, all-male panels were generally how it was done. Every day, in Geneva and across multilateral spaces, the people shaping global policy were a single, narrow slice of humanity. We made that unacceptable — not by asking, but by making it a shared commitment leaders were publicly accountable to. That culture shift was real. And it was only the beginning.
A decade of data and hard-won experience has taught us that counting bodies in rooms is always just the first step. Who speaks? Who is heard? Whose expertise shapes the outcome? Our own data tells the story: an event can look 40% female and sound 80% male. The updated Pledge goes after that gap — moving from presence to process, from gender balance to genuine inclusion across geography, age, disability, race and lived experience.
We are broadening the Pledge because this moment demands it — because the challenges we face are too complex, the stakes too high, to leave any insight, any brilliance, any hard-won wisdom out of the room. Now we build the table the world actually needs.
Click here to read the updated Panel Parity Pledge and supplementary guidance.