As part of IID’s three-day residential staff development workshop (13–15 December 2025) at Matir Maya Eco Resort, Sreepur, Gazipur, 14 December focused on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) through a full day of practice-based learning. The sessions combined hands-on activities with guided reflection so that staff could explore GESI not only as an idea, but as a workplace practice. Renowned gender expert Sanaiyya Faheem Ansari, General Secretary & Executive Director, Network for Research and Training (NRT), led the day and supported IID colleagues to build shared understanding, reflect on lived realities, and connect GESI values to everyday professional choices.
The day began with a warm welcome from the facilitator, who shared her own journey with GESI. She spoke from her personal and professional experiences, reflecting on the realities women often face in difficult contexts and how resilience takes shape through everyday challenges. She also shared how these experiences shaped her own resilience as a woman. This opening helped everyone connect with GESI as something real and personal, shaped by context, power, and everyday struggle.
The day began with a warm welcome from the facilitator, who shared her own journey with Gender Equality and Social Inclusion. She drew on both personal and professional experiences to reflect on the realities women often face in difficult contexts and how resilience takes shape through everyday challenges. This grounding in lived experience helped participants connect with GESI as something deeply real and personal, shaped by context, power, and everyday struggle.
To create energy and connection in the room, participants formed four groups and took part in a short creative exercise. One group expressed their collective mood, another showed their confidence level, a third wrote an adjective that reflected their names or identities, and the final group wrote a news headline that captured what GESI means today. This activity helped participants step into the day with openness and self-awareness, while also setting up a collaborative tone.
Next, the learning moved into a fast-paced team activity. Staff formed teams under IID senior management and searched the venue for sets of GESI-related questions. Each team collected their questions and worked together to discuss and answer them. The movement, teamwork, and problem-solving helped broaden participants’ understanding of GESI concepts in a lively way, while also strengthening coordination and group learning.
With that momentum, the learning moved into a fast-paced team activity. The facilitator formed teams led by experienced team members, and participants searched the venue for sets of GESI-related questions. Each team collected their questions and worked together to discuss and answer them. The movement and teamwork made core concepts feel more accessible, while also strengthening coordination and group learning in a lively, engaging way.
The day then shifted into a deeper reflection exercise that made privilege and exclusion visible in a powerful way. Participants took on different identities, such as a elderly man, a teenage girl, or a refugee woman. As the facilitator read out statements, participants stepped forward or backward depending on whether their character could access safety, respect, opportunity, or resources. By the end, some participants stood far behind others, which clearly showed how intersectionality shapes lived experience and how privilege changes what is possible in daily life.
After that, the group moved into an activity that focused on shared responsibility. Participants kept balloons in the air, but the task required them to support others as well, not only themselves. The exercise reminded everyone that inclusion does not hold through individual effort alone. It grows when people notice others, step in, and help ensure no one falls behind.
A later reflection segment focused on the “baggage” people carry in daily life. Using colourful papers, participants wrote down different forms of baggage, such as light but constant burdens, invisible pressures, and personal weights that affect wellbeing and participation. This exercise helped strengthen empathy and made space to acknowledge struggles that often remain unseen in professional settings.
The day ended with a shared commitment to continue GESI learning and practice beyond the residential workshop. The facilitator shared that follow-up exercises would take place at the IID office so that the learning becomes a consistent part of workplace culture. As a next step, IID staff received a personal task to write a story that captures a turning point in their lives, as a way to deepen self-awareness, grow empathy, and build a more human-centered organizational environment.
Overall, the full-day GESI session strengthened IID’s collective understanding that inclusion is not a one-time conversation. It is a continuous practice that requires reflection, effort, and shared accountability. Through storytelling, teamwork, movement-based learning, and personal insight, staff renewed their commitment to a workplace culture rooted in dignity, equity, and shared responsibility.