Building Blocks of Inclusion: Integrating Gender Equality and Social Economy Inclusion in the FINCAPES Journey
Every climate story begins with a question.
From the floodplains of Pontianak to the mangrove coasts of Lampung, the FINCAPES project has grown into a living example of how research, gender equality and social economy inclusion, and community action can work together to build climate resilience.
This blog looks back on our key milestones, not as static outputs, but as living lessons from a journey that bridges inclusive research to resilient communities.
“We began by rethinking climate research:
how can it be more inclusive?”
Too often, climate studies describe what changes, but not who is affected, or how. FINCAPES began its journey by challenging that gap between science and society, transforming research from a technical exercise into an act of empathy, equity, and collaboration.
Through the GESEI Guidance Note, we invited researchers to apply an intersectional lens, one that recognizes how gender, class, age, and ability shape vulnerability and resilience. This helped transform research design from a technical task into a tool for equity and understanding.
FINCAPES also convened stakeholders and researchers to collectively discuss and strengthen the integration of gender equality and socio-economic inclusion across research and implementation.
We convened researchers to focus on two crucial skills: integrating Gender Equality & Social-Economy Inclusion and practicing Social Marketing in research. The goal? To maximize the impact of their science by ensuring all voices directly shape the solutions to climate and community issues.
At the recent Workshop on Social Marketing in Research for Climate Action, researchers revisited how they frame questions, asking who benefits, who is left unseen, and whose voices shape the evidence. They explored participatory tools such as photo voice, community-based monitoring, and gender-sensitive mapping to better capture the lived realities of women, youth, informal workers, and persons with disabilities, groups often overlooked in conventional data collection.
The training emphasized ethics and positionality, urging researchers to treat communities not as “subjects” but as partners in knowledge creation. This redefined the researcher’s role from detached observer to engaged collaborator, fostering more inclusive and context-sensitive science.
Participants also reflected on the communication gap between data and impact. They learned that trust grows from dialogue, that empathy, humility, and storytelling are not soft skills but scientific essentials. Social marketing, they concluded, is not about promoting science but designing change, linking innovation to livelihoods, connecting evidence to behavior, and turning research into meaningful conversation.
These milestones built FINCAPES’ core: science that listens, includes, and acts, turning research from knowledge production into people empowerment.
“How can we put inclusion into practice?”
Inclusive research only matters when it transforms how decisions are made. FINCAPES began turning frameworks into real solutions.
In one of its key components, FINCAPES is strengthening flood resilience in Pontianak, West Kalimantan through a comprehensive flood risk modeling study. Facing increasingly severe floods driven by climate change and recurring La Niña events, the project develops flood hazard maps under multiple climate scenarios (10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-year return periods) to guide adaptive urban planning and infrastructure investment.
The model reveals the risks of flood depths rising from over 2 meters today to beyond 4.2 meters in extreme future scenarios, with inundation spreading further inland. Exacerbating factors such as land subsidence, peatland degradation, rapid urbanization, and deforestation, intensify these risks, while drainage systems designed for historic rainfall are no longer adequate. The findings underline an urgent need for system upgrades, landscape restoration, and sustainable water management.
Building on insights from the FINCAPES publication Integrating Gender Equality and Socio-Economic Inclusion into Flood Risk Models and Analysis, the study recognizes that floods affect groups differently.
The flood risk modelling study team conducted interview with residents in Pontianak to gather qualitative data on flood vulnerability and risks.
Women, low-income households, and informal workers face greater exposure and slower recovery due to unequal access to assets, information, and decision-making. Incorporating a GESEI perspective transforms flood modeling from a technical tool into one that also captures the social, economic, and gendered dimensions of vulnerability, highlighting how power, livelihood, and care responsibilities shape resilience. Through this endeavor, FINCAPES ensures that adaptation strategies respond not only to hydrological realities but also to human ones.
This integrated approach, also reflected in the GESEI and Social Protection Systems brief, redefines how climate policy, infrastructure design, and community preparedness can work together.
When science meets storytelling, policy becomes empathy in action.
“How can we listen to the voices that matter most?”
Real resilience grows from the ground up.
In the beginning of our project, we went across Purworejo, Pandan Sejahtera, and Catur Rahayu Villages, we met communities who live climate change every day, and respond with innovation, care, and collective strength.
Our Village Infographics turned socio-economic data into stories that people could see themselves in: where men and women work, who holds land, who cares for children, and how local groups organize to protect forests and farms.
Beyond the data, FINCAPES’ inclusive approach is sparking new local initiatives, driving our mapping into movement.
Following the baseline socio-economic mapping, FINCAPES worked with the community to embed Gender Equality and Socio-Economic Inclusion (GESEI) into restoration efforts. We supported them to develop a plan to establish a Women Farmers Group (Kelompok Wanita Tani/KWT) in Sungai Gelam as a homegrown initiative driven by local women.
FINCAPES is engaging men and women in Sungai Gelam with training on Gender Equality & Socio-Economic Inclusion (GESI). We're also helping them create their own farmers groups, ensuring everyone has a voice and plays a part in restoration efforts.
The group’s formation was entirely participatory, confirming members’ commitment, designing an organizational structure, and drafting its Statutes and Bylaws (AD–ART). Facilitated by the FINCAPES GESEI Expert, the July workshop also connected the group with the Forestry Extension Officer from KPH Muaro Jambi, ensuring local government engagement to sustain the group’s growth.
During the same session, the GESI Community Booklet: Understanding Gender Equality became a practical learning tool, sparking conversations about fairness, shared responsibility, and equality in both home and public life. The workshop culminated in the process of formalizing the KWT through a Village Head Decree (SK Kepala Desa), giving it legal standing to access training, government programs, and funding.
This milestone marks a tangible step toward economic self-reliance and gender-responsive empowerment in the peatland restoration program.
And through the Documenting Stories from the Field guideline, FINCAPES continues to connect data with lived experience, making science not only analytical but human and actionable.
“How can we connect science, community, and change?”
For FINCAPES, innovation means designing together.
Our Living Laboratories in Lampung and Jambi serve as living classrooms where communities, researchers, and policymakers co-create solutions for climate resilience. Here, peatland and mangrove restoration go hand-in-hand with livelihood innovations, from sustainable aquaculture to eco-friendly small enterprises.
Drawing from the Good Practices in Nature-Based Solutions (International) publication, these Living Labs embody the core NbS principle that ecosystem restoration succeeds when people are part of the design, not just the outcome. Effective NbS integrates biodiversity goals with social and economic co-benefits, ensuring that interventions restore ecosystems while improving livelihoods, equity, and local ownership.
By blending scientific monitoring with local knowledge, FINCAPES demonstrates that conservation and prosperity can reinforce one another. These Living Labs also provide a testing ground for participatory governance, aligning community priorities with long-term restoration outcomes.
Our Living Laboratories are local classrooms! Here, we meet with a dedicated women's group in Lampung at the mangrove restoration site. By discussing key activities together, we blend scientific goals with local knowledge, ensuring our restoration efforts are inclusive, owned by the community, and provide livelihood innovations.
Linked to the Good Practices in NbS framework, lessons from Lampung and Jambi contribute to a wider global dialogue on how locally grounded innovation can drive climate justice, inclusion, and sustainable prosperity.
“Each milestone is a lesson for tomorrow.”
Each knowledge product marks a step in FINCAPES’ journey, but more importantly, it marks a change in mindset.
From guiding researchers to listen differently, to helping policymakers see differently, to empowering communities to act differently, the FINCAPES journey shows that inclusion is a foundation for resilience.
As we move forward, these milestones remind us why we began: to connect data with empathy, and science with society, and proving that science can be just, data can be human, and change can begin with understanding.
Dive deeper into FINCAPES’ work on Gender Equality and Socio-Economic Inclusion (GESEI) through the flipbook below to explore our knowledge catalogue. Inside the flipbook, click any green-highlighted text or title to access the full publication.