1. Gender and Social Inclusion Mainstreaming in ACT: an overview
March 2019

2. Why is this important? Equity and rights Instrumental Compliance
Everyone deserves to benefit from climate adaptation policy
Instrumental
Climate adaptation works better by bringing in a range of knowledge and practice
Compliance
Increasing obligations

3. The Challenge
GESI mainstreaming in a policy-oriented programme is fundamentally different from working at ‘project’ or ‘community’ level
Fewer tools and documented approaches
Often involves combining GESI advocacy with climate advocacy
Getting GESI into policy and planning rather than focus on project- level equity, access, and participation
Challenging to monitor, measure, and attribute change: downstream or future beneficiaries not always visible or countable

4. How did we work?
Understanding the political as well as social, economic, and climatic context
ACT’s Location Team Leaders deeply embedded in these realities
Local Gender Experts with strong contextual understanding implement locally
Thinking and working politically: understanding how to navigate local political economies
Supra-locational technical team provided high-level steering and ensured regional linkages and learning capture

5. What: Six Action Areas and selected examples
Policy research and recommendations
Research and policy development into climate-proofing agricultural value chains in Bihar and Maharashtra recognised the key roles of women in these livelihoods
Climate integrated planning
National and state-level action plans for climate change supported by ACT teams in Nepal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Odisha, incorporating GESI perspectives
Decision support tools
In Kerala and Odisha, heat island action planning incorporated a focus on women’s particular vulnerabilities

6. What: Six Action Areas and Selected Examples
Training and capacity building
GESI mainstreaming guides, toolkits, and training curricula have been produced in several ACT locations; trainings provided proactively targeted women
Climate finance and budgeting
In Chhattisgarh, ACT has supported development of a proposal for India’s National Adaptation Fund. Expected to reach more than 10,000 people, most of whom are marginal tribal farmers, fishermen, forest dwellers.
Governance and institutional development
The Assam Climate Change Management Society will be using an ACT-developed GESI Training Module for capacity building initiatives in the state.
Climate change cells have been developed and supported by ACT in multiple programme locations.

7. Learning by doing: 8 key lessons
Start early
Choose the right fruit
Negotiate different commitment levels
Decompartmentalise GESI and climate adaptation
Set up cross-platform learning and build the evidence base
Embed change for multiplication and sustainability
De-link GE and SI
Tell the story differently

8. Thank You