Hummingbird™ META

1. Purpose & Commitment

Hummingbird™ META is committed to advancing gender equality and women's empowerment across all areas of our operations, partnerships, and programs. This Gender Action Plan provides a framework for embedding equality as a measurable standard of excellence — ensuring that women and men have equitable access to opportunity, resources, and leadership.

Gender equality is not a parallel initiative at Hummingbird™ META — it is the core of our commercial model. 90% of current GSS+ participants and 100% of our Hummingbird Certified Mentors are women, meaning gender-equitable programme design is what serving our actual market requires, not an add-on. Pacific women-led MSMEs remain structurally underrepresented in regional investment pipelines despite comprising a significant share of MSME activity — closing that gap responsibly is the commercial opportunity Hummingbird™ META exists to pursue. Locally-grounded, gender-responsive mentor matching also builds the trust that drives cohort retention and referral, strengthening the sustainability of our delivery model. An explicit, evidenced gender equality strategy is also increasingly a precondition for the institutional partnerships and donor relationships Hummingbird™ META depends on to scale.

2. Objectives

Objective	Intended Outcomes
1. Integrate gender equality into all capacity-building programs	Women and men participate equitably in the Growth Starter System PLUS (GSS+) and Hummingbird Certified Mentor (HCM) pathways.
2. Strengthen women’s leadership and representation	Women make up at least 50 % of mentors, facilitators, and program graduates by 2026.
3. Promote gender-responsive workplace practices	Equal opportunity, pay equity, and inclusive decision-making embedded in recruitment and contractor engagement. Completed.
4. Advance women’s economic participation in the Pacific	More women-owned MSMEs formalized, investor-ready, and scaling sustainably.
5. Build accountability and continuous improvement	Annual gender progress review published as part of Hummingbird’s sustainability reporting.

3. Key Actions & Milestones

Note on responsibility titles: given Hummingbird's current size, the functional roles referenced below (Program Director, HR & Operations, Strategic Partnerships, Monitoring & Impact) are held by the Founding Director and senior HCM Country Leads across responsibility areas, not by separate departments or dedicated staff. These are commercially understood functional descriptions, not an organisational chart.

Action Area	Key Actions (2025–2026)	Responsibility
Program Design & Delivery	• Apply gender lens to curriculum and case studies. • Ensure 50 % female participation in all cohorts. • Track gender-disaggregated outcomes.	Program Director / HCM Lead
Leadership & Workforce	• Maintain gender-balanced leadership. • Adopt equal pay policy - completed (Inclusive Engagement Policy, Section 8, annual pay equity audit). • Implement inclusive hiring and flexible work practices — completed (Inclusive Engagement Policy; Ways of Working).	Director / HR & Operations
Mentorship & Networks	• Expand female mentor pool. • Maintain an alumni community — completed, via WhatsApp group and online community for GSS+ and HCM alumni. • Pair female founders with senior mentors.	HCM Team
Policy & Advocacy	• Finalize Gender Equality Policy — completed, comprising the Anti-Harassment & Safeguarding Policy, Inclusive Engagement Policy, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Policy, Recognizing and Mitigating Gender Bias module, and Responsible Marketing & Communications Policy. • Endorse UN Women’s WEPs formally — completed, CEO Statement of Support signed 10 Nov 2025. • Share best practices through regional forums.	Director / Strategic Partnerships
Monitoring & Reporting	• Publish annual Gender Snapshot — completed and ongoing, issued quarterly as the Progress Snapshot. • Integrate gender metrics into CRM dashboard. • Review progress at quarterly management meetings.	Monitoring & Impact Team

4. Performance Indicators

• % of women participants in programs (target: ≥ 50 %)
• % of women in leadership / mentor roles (target: ≥ 40 %)
• % of women-owned MSMEs supported and formalized (target: ≥ 50 %)
• % of gender-responsive partnerships or policies adopted (target: ≥ 50 %)
• Annual progress report published and shared with partners

See our latest quarterly progress against these targets in our [2026 Progress Snapshot]

5. Governance & Review

The Founding Director of Hummingbird™ META oversees implementation, supported by HCM Country Leads in their respective functional areas. The plan is reviewed annually to evaluate progress, update targets, and ensure alignment with WEPs, SDG 5, and donor frameworks.

6. Statement of Ongoing Commitment

“Gender equality is at the core of how Hummingbird™ builds sustainable systems of growth. Through this plan, we continue to ensure that every woman has the opportunity, tools, and mentorship to lead change—creating businesses and communities that endure.”

7. Alignment with Responsible Business Conduct and ESG

Gender equality is a core component of Hummingbird™ META's approach to Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. Under the Social pillar, gender-equitable participation in GSS+ and HCM Elevate strengthens human capital development and community resilience across the Pacific. Under Governance, our commitment to inclusive, accountable leadership — reflected in this plan's quarterly review process — supports transparent decision-making. This Gender Action Plan is directly aligned with SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and contributes to SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and is consistent with international RBC frameworks including the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

8. Addressing Intersecting Forms of Discrimination

Women entrepreneurs across the Pacific don't experience barriers to formalisation and growth in isolation from other dimensions of identity and circumstance. Hummingbird™ META's gender equality strategy explicitly accounts for the following:

Ethnicity — Our GSS+ and HCM cohorts operate across ethnically diverse Pacific communities, including iTaukei and Indo-Fijian entrepreneurs in Fiji and distinct island and diaspora communities across Samoa, Tonga, and Palau. Mentor matching and programme delivery are designed to be culturally responsive to each community, not standardised to a single cultural norm.

Age — GSS+ and HCM deliberately reach both youth entrepreneurs entering business for the first time and mature women formalising businesses built over many years, recognising that the barriers each group faces — access to capital, digital literacy, caregiving responsibilities — differ by life stage.

Disability — Hummingbird™ META reviews programme delivery formats — session locations, materials, timing — to identify and remove barriers to participation for women entrepreneurs living with disability, and captures disability status on a voluntary, self-disclosed basis as part of mentee onboarding from 1 August 2026.

Migration status — Many Pacific women entrepreneurs operate within household economies shaped by labour mobility and diaspora remittances. HCM mentors are trained to accommodate irregular availability tied to seasonal work schemes, rather than applying a single standard engagement model.

Race — As Hummingbird™ META enters new markets, programme design and mentor recruitment are reviewed to ensure no racial or ethnic group faces structural disadvantage in accessing GSS+ or HCM pathways.

This commitment is reviewed annually alongside the wider Gender Action Plan, with any barriers identified through mentee feedback addressed in the next quarterly review cycle.

Justin Hoang, Founding Director, Hummingbird™ META