2025 End of Year Reflection
WiAD 2025 – A year of discussions and re-evaluations for the Aid & Development sector
In a year that saw a flurry of significant changes – some would say watershed moments – in the international aid and development sector, Women in Aid and Development sought to focus on many of the issues arising from these changes by facilitating discussions on relevant and related topics in its city-based and online events.
There was a total of 5 topic-based events, 2 of which were conducted online during our Australian winter, when venturing out on a mid-week evening is less appealing to most.
With what has become our traditional starter to the year, the celebration of and advocacy for International Women’s Day (IWD) in March was marked with successful events held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra.
In May, we looked at programs around Delivering Sexual Health and Reproductive Choices, with events in our two major city bases, Melbourne and Sydney.
Come July and August, the format moved to Zoom, with an excellent look at the often-requested topic of getting into the development sector as a young professional or as a student looking to move into it. And a few weeks later, a topic which had become very much front-of-mind, given the state of the development sector both in terms of funding cuts and the ongoing and worsening global humanitarian crises – all underlining a consideration of how to support well-being in a challenging time for the Aid & Development sector.
The year of WiAD events wrapped up in October with a much-needed discussion, given the theme of all those preceding events, on Where to Now for Humanitarian Aid and Funding? This raised the interesting ideas of corporate and philanthropic funding as possible options to bring into the traditional funding pathways.
All in all, WiAD again experienced a year of successful relationships, with an increased sense of its own community, seeing a record number of volunteers signing up in support of events, as well as a continual growth in followers and reach for our digital platforms.
Looking ahead to 2026, the year is set to be both busy and productive, with further conversations shaping understanding of global development and the roles women play as professionals, practitioners, and participants in a changing sector.
- Jill Scanlon
For more about what WiAD has been up to, please see our 2024-2025 Annual Report here.