Founding Member – The Elevate Group Former Vice President of Communications, Asia Pacific – Netflix Former Senior Director of Policy & Communications, Asia Pacific – Uber Former Head of Public Affairs & Communications, New & Emerging Markets, Thailand – Google Former Head of Internal Communications, Asia Pacific – Syngenta Former Head of Public Affairs & Communications, Indochina – Coca-Cola Sabco Former Public Affairs & Communications Senior Manager, Southeast & West Asia – The Coca-Cola Company Former South & Southeast Asian Regional Project Manager – Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)
SDG Focus: Sustainable Development Goal 5 – Gender Equality Changemaker for Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Leadership (Australia)
Here is an Icons of Change Keynote for Sustainable Development Goal 5, delivered by one of the most influential voices shaping gender equality, inclusive leadership, and strategic advocacy across the Asia Pacific region.
She moves with precision through five core lenses of her advocacy:
1. The Imperative of Safety and Dignity
Amy delivers a sobering reminder: 1 in 3 women worldwide experience violence in their lifetime—a statistic unchanged for decades. She challenges the audience to recognize that this is neither inevitable nor acceptable.
She calls for leaders across sectors to take ownership, refusing to outsource responsibility for equality to future generations or unnamed stewards of change.
2. The Corporate Mandate for Gender Equality
Drawing from her 25+ years of global leadership, Amy underscores the responsibility and strategic advantage organizations hold:
“Hire women. Pay women. Promote women. Protect women and mothers in the workforce.”
Her keynote reframes equity not as an HR initiative but as a business-critical growth and performance strategy—a model proven repeatedly throughout her career at Netflix, Uber, Google, Syngenta, Coca-Cola, and Austrade.
3. Policy, Representation, and Power Structures
Amy emphasizes that true equality requires women to occupy—and influence—every table of decision-making.
She calls for:
- Greater representation of women at all policy levels
- Laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and violence
- Stronger data and measurement frameworks
- Gender-responsive governance from technology to climate action
Her message is clear: systems cannot change if the voices of those most affected are missing from the rooms where decisions are made.
4. Storytelling as a Catalyst for Equality
As a storyteller and cultural strategist, Amy challenges the passive language often used around women’s empowerment:
“Power is not something to be given to women—it already exists within them.”
00:00To the Honourable Icons of Change Global Secretariat, to my fellow changemakers and Ambassadors for Sustainable Development and to the global citizens, especially women and girls who may be watching today, allow me to start by saying thank you for the honour of being appointed a 2025 Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goal 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
00:24My name is Amy Gonropenya and tonight I want to make the urgent case for gender equality through the lens of rebalancing power structures for women and girls across corporate, policy and creative ecosystems.
00:37It is both fitting and sobering that my keynote coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the kick-off of the UN Women's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
00:52To be a woman or a girl in the world today is to be at risk.
00:58From homes to streets to offices to digital spaces, women and girls are being harmed, silenced, erased and killed.
01:06This isn't random, this is systemic.
01:09One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
01:17One in three is still the number and it has barely changed since 2000.
01:21The statistics are overwhelmingly clear and we cannot look away.
01:26One in three women is not inevitable.
01:28It is unacceptable.
01:30We cannot wait or hope that somehow someone will solve the equality equation for half the world's population without us playing an active role in shaping a future that ensures women and girls everywhere their safety, dignity and the right to live without fear.
01:48As a mother, I refuse to accept a reality for my daughters or my son that implies the current gender inequality is inevitable.
01:57From access to health care, to education, to arts and employment, fighting for a different future for them and for all children is one of the single most important acts of my lifetime.
02:07As an executive, I know firsthand that organizations have the power to drive change at a national and a community level through their policies and the way their employees experience their principles in practice.
02:22Put simply, hire women, pay women, promote women and protect women and mothers in the workforce.
02:30This isn't a recommendation out of the goodness of our hearts.
02:33It is a revenue-based business decision that research shows consistently outperforms market expectations.
02:41As a leader and an advocate, I have sat in rooms as the only woman and I can say unequivocally, we will not achieve gender equality if those most impacted are absent from the very discussion designed to serve as a catalyst for positive change.
02:56Governments and government agencies need to increase the representation of women in decision-making bodies at all levels.
03:03We need to ensure women's specific needs and challenges are addressed in national and international policy, from technology to climate action.
03:11We need to enforce laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and gender-based violence.
03:17And we need to improve data collection, because what gets measured gets managed.
03:21As a storyteller, I believe our words hold the power to change the world.
03:27And the story we're telling today around gender equality uses a passive voice.
03:33I reject the frequently used phrase, empower, when it comes to women and girls, because it suggests power is to be given to them, rather than recognising power is inherent in who they are.
03:44The more the world sees stories that are women-centred, with women in front and behind the camera, in the writers' room, in every part of the creative experience, the more we will normalise the rights and the rise of women and girls.
03:58For so many, we cannot be what we cannot see.
04:01As a mentor and an activist, I am inspired by the women and girls who cross my path daily, and who refuse to accept the status quo.
04:18Rebalancing power for women requires systemic change.
04:22Rewriting the narrative, reshaping the landscape, and championing a future where every woman has a seat at the table.
04:28We need targeted policies, inclusive corporate practices, and the willpower to challenge harmful stereotypes online and in real life.
04:38Nothing changes if nothing changes.
04:40So tonight, I invite you to consider how you can make a change to achieve gender equality in our lifetime.
04:47Will you stand up, show up, speak up for women and girls?
04:52Will you commit to co-creating a world where gender equality isn't a dream, but a hard-fought-for reality?
04:59This is a fight we can and must win.
05:02So let's be the change makers the world has been waiting for.
Be the first to comment