Webinar: Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Insights from the GFCR Portfolio

On 25 February 2026, the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) and the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) convened a REEF+ Webinar on Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Insights from the GFCR Portfolio, delivered in two identical sessions (Asia-Pacific and Americas) to accommodate time zones.

This joint webinar aimed to strengthen understanding of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GEDSI), highlighting examples, common gaps, and replicable practices in GEDSI integration from the DEFRA and GFCR portfolios. Across both sessions, speakers especially emphasized that GEDSI is not a “tick-box” requirement: it is central to delivering durable reef outcomes by ensuring the right people shape solutions, benefit from them, and can access finance, skills, markets, and leadership opportunities.

Recordings

Asia-Pacific Session

Americas Session

Key Insights

Yabanex Batista (GFCR) – Welcome remarks

• Framed GEDSI as essential to GFCR’s mission: reef outcomes depend on people, and groups including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and persons with disabilities face distinct barriers to decision-making and finance.
• Shared early portfolio signals: ~8,000 women direct beneficiaries and ~2.5 million women indirect beneficiaries, and noted 61 solutions aligned with the 2X Challenge.
• Highlighted GFCR’s broader commitment to elevating women’s leadership, including joining the Women Ocean Guardians voluntary commitment.
• In the Asia-Pacific session, underscored that “finance is not only about delivering resources” but delivering them to the right people to enable equitable access to assets, skills, markets, and leadership.

Helen Poulsen (DEFRA) – GEDSI in the DEFRA portfolio

• Emphasized the evidence base: nature/climate programming is more effective when designed with communities, recognizing marginalized groups as key agents—not just beneficiaries.
• Pointed to core building blocks: early, high-quality GEDSI analysis; disaggregated data; integrating GEDSI into ToC/risks/indicators/MEL; and properly resourcing safeguarding, accessibility, and staff capability.
• Presented the GEDSI ambition spectrum (unaware → compliant → empowering → transformative) and noted it’s a tool to guide ambition, not always a linear ladder.
• Explained “transformative” as addressing structural barriers, shifting from inviting people into a programme to shaping the programme around them.

See more resources:

• UK International Climate Finance GEDSI guidance
• Principles for Inclusive Nature Action
• Inclusive data charter

Bontu Yousuf (WEF – Global Plastic Action Partnership) – Case studies

• Highlighted why GEDSI matters in plastics and described GPAP’s approach: national roadmaps informed by social/GEDSI assessments, community-building via local GEDSI advisors, and an inclusive plastics action program supporting informal workers.
• Advised against one-size-fits-all “formalization”: in some contexts informality has advantages (trust, flexibility for caregivers); in others, cooperatives and stronger institutions may make formalization empowering—so the starting point is listening to local voices and context.
• Asia-Pacific example (Vietnam – “Green Warriors”): Cited work in Hanoi with VietCycle: technical training for safer sorting/handling (incl. PPE), market-based pricing + financial literacy, and a stigma-reduction campaign reframing waste workers as “Green Warriors” to build pride and recognition.
• Americas example (Colombia GEDSI analysis): Shared that GPAP’s Colombia GEDSI analysis identified major leakage and inequities, noting the heavy reliance on informal workers and recommending steps such as formalization (context-dependent), inclusive waste programming, gender-sensitive policies, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

See more resources:

• Deep dive on Vietnam's Green Warriors Project
• Colombia GESI Assessment
• GESI Home Page
• Guide To Ensure Gender-Responsive Action In Eliminating Plastic Pollution Guidance
• Impact Film: Invisible Warriors: The force behind Viet Nam’s plastic action
• Deep Dive: How Viet Nam’s informal waste workers are leading the plastic pollution fight

Kayla Kim (GFCR) – GFCR highlights

• Pointed audiences to GFCR’s policy toolkit and learning resources (safeguards, gender policy, stakeholder engagement) and reinforced the importance of disaggregated reporting and learning across the portfolio.
• Shared practice-based “what’s working”: linking GEDSI activities to outcomes, creating safe spaces and gender-responsive engagement methods, strong grievance mechanisms and safeguarding, and peer learning.

Panel discussion

Angelique Brathwaite (Blue Alliance)

Angelique Brathwaite was unable to join live and sent over a video for us diving into Blue Alliance’s work on GEDSI and lessons learned.

Fitri Hasibuan (Konservasi Indonesia)

• Used the seaweed industry in Sumba to show how GEDSI can be implemented in industries where women already comprise the majority of people in the value-chain: women are heavily involved in seedling preparation, drying, and marketing, while men focused more on site preparation and transport.
• Shared a women-led enterprise example (“Kaliuda”) supported to build a seaweed hatchery and scale production, with follow-on needs including business planning and financial/bookkeeping support to match growing demand.

Hee Sung Kim (GFCR)

• Noted a portfolio-wide trend: strong attention to gender and Indigenous Peoples in many contexts, while disability inclusion is still limited in practice.
• Highlighted operational adaptations that improve women’s participation (e.g., training schedules, targeted technical skills that build confidence to participate in governance).
• Emphasized the importance of working through intermediaries (banks/accelerators) in under-served reef geographies; described how guarantees + technical assistance + pipeline development can improve access to finance for women-led/coastal businesses with examples of GFCR’s work in Fiji and PNG.

Susannah Rodgers (FCDO)

• Framed disability inclusion as essential: ~1B people globally; disability intersects with gender/age and is prevalent in many Indigenous contexts; poverty–disability cycles and barriers (environmental, communication, stigma, institutional, financial) can exclude people from education, employment and finance.
• Recommended practical steps: collect disability-disaggregated data (e.g., Washington Group question sets), and partner with OPDs (Organizations of Persons with Disabilities) as representative, lived-experience institutions.

See more resources:

• The Washington Group Questions
• Resource library on disability inclusion
• Advancing disability inclusive climate action: A resource guide for global practitioners
• Unequal climate justice for people with disabilities: insights and evidence from communities and civil society organisations
• Disability and Climate Change in the Pacific: Findings from Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu

Maria José González (MAR Fund)

• Explained MAR Fund’s blended finance platform and how GEDSI is integrated via safeguards: environmental and social risk assessments flag risks (e.g., GBV, exclusion) and translate into monitored action plans.
• Shared practical ways to source and grow GEDSI-positive ventures: intentionally weight selection criteria, tailor support to barriers (time, accompaniment, investment readiness), and create pre-incubation suited to rural/cultural realities.
• Described Women for the MAR (launched mid-2024): mapped 60+ initiatives and supported 14 women-led ventures in 2025, combining grants, business/financial training, and peer exchange.

Magda Masquita Mc Keller (Fondo Acción)

• Emphasized intersectionality and context: GEDSI was tailored to Raizal community dynamics, across generations and social groups, with youth prioritized due to heightened exposure to socio-economic risk.
• On sectors where women already participate (e.g., fisheries value chain): focused on moving from participation to leadership through safe spaces, “do no harm” approaches, access to assets, and adapting trainings to women’s schedules/childcare realities.

Helen Poulsen (DEFRA)

• Distinguished participation from influence: “attendance” is not “agency,” and programs should embed power-shifting mechanisms and resource accessibility to reach empowering/transformative practice.

Bontu Yousuf (WEF–GPAP)

• Reinforced the need to start with local context and voices when reforms (e.g., formalization) risk unintended harms; “best intentions” can still produce inequitable outcomes without that grounding.