Policy & Advocacy

Co-hosted by the Settlement Council of Australia and AMWA at Women Deliver 2026, this partner side event brought together leaders across humanitarian response, settlement, family violence, Muslim women’s rights and multicultural policy advocacy to explore settlement as gender equality infrastructure.

Speakers examined how global conflict and displacement shape women’s safety and economic security before arrival, how migration policy itself can produce precarity and risk, and how racism, religion, gender and migration status intersect to shape exclusion for Muslim and other racialised women.

AMWA Executive Director Malini Raj described women-led community organisations as “the infrastructure behind the infrastructure” — essential, under-resourced systems that build trust, navigate complexity and create pathways to leadership that mainstream services fail to provide.

The report sets out ten key findings and eight policy and investment priorities, including embedding settlement in gender equality policy, funding community-led infrastructure on a multi-year basis, and reforming visa-related safety barriers, alongside recommended next steps such as a joint policy brief and a national advocacy coalition.