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Herlina Dedy Listiani is a gender researcher, community facilitator, and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning practitioner with more than eight years of experience in women’s empowerment, social protection, participatory research, and community-led development.

As Research and MEAL Coordinator at DEEP EnGender, she leads research and learning processes that strengthen the quality, accountability, and gender responsiveness of the organisation’s programmes. Her work connects community knowledge and lived experience with programme design, organisational learning, advocacy, and inclusive development.

Herlina has extensive experience working alongside rural women, young people, and Indigenous communities in Indonesia. She facilitates participatory spaces through which community members can analyse their circumstances, articulate their priorities, and contribute knowledge to programme development and evaluation. Her approach places particular emphasis on women whose experiences of poverty, environmental change, social exclusion, and unpaid care work are often insufficiently represented in formal decision-making.

At DEEP EnGender, she has served as Lead Community Facilitator and MEAL Focal Point for the Re-Grow Digital Initiative with Indigenous Suku Anak Dalam communities in Jambi. In this role, she supported community engagement, participatory learning, programme monitoring, documentation, and the translation of community experience into evidence for organisational learning and advocacy.

Before joining DEEP EnGender, Herlina worked with the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, facilitating community-development, poverty-reduction, social-protection, and women’s empowerment programmes across 16 villages in West Java and Bali. Through this work, she engaged with more than 1,000 rural women and supported stronger community participation and access to public services.

She later served as a community facilitator with Yayasan Akar Cahaya Indonesia in Central Java, where she worked with rural and coastal women on livelihoods, environmental change, and gender inequality. She initiated Kartini Corner, a community learning platform that has engaged more than 300 women, activists, and local stakeholders in dialogue, learning, and collective action for gender equality.

Herlina holds a Master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies from Universitas Brawijaya, where she graduated with a GPA of 4.00/4.00 as a recipient of the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education scholarship. Her graduate research used feminist participatory action research to examine women’s collective action against the feminisation of poverty in a rural community in Central Java. She also holds a Bachelor of Education in English Language Teaching from Universitas Islam Sultan Agung.

Her research and publications examine rural women’s agency, poverty, patriarchy, gendered language, community empowerment, care, ecological knowledge, climate activism, and feminist research practice. Alongside academic writing, she uses poetry, storytelling, and facilitated dialogue to make women’s experiences and local knowledge more visible within research and public engagement.

Education

• 2025 — Master’s in Gender and Women’s Studies, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia
• 2017 — Bachelor of Education in English Language Teaching, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Indonesia
• 2015 — Non-Degree Programme in English and Cross-Cultural Understanding, Marmara University, Istanbul, Türkiye

Selected Professional Development

• Participant, Environmental Justice Workshop: Rethinking Knowledge, Power, and Inequality in the Context of Climate Change and Agrarian Transitions in Southeast Asia, Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 24–29 January 2026
• Participant, Feminist Participatory Action Research Academy, 2024
• Certified Facilitator and Social Worker, Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, 2019

Selected Publications

Listiani, H. D., and Ilahiyah, A. I. (2025). “‘I Am a Widow, Poor and Living in a Village’: What Has Changed after the Beijing Declaration in Rural Indonesia?” Proceedings of the International Conference on Future of Women, 4(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.17501/26028646.2025.4201

Listiani, H. D., Sukesi, K., and Wike. (2025). “On Perishing Poverty and Patriarchy: A Narrative Inquiry Exploring Women’s Agency in Rural Java.” Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora, 14(1), 138–147. https://doi.org/10.23887/jish.v14i1.88932

Listiani, H. D., Sukesi, K., and Wike. (2025). “Amplifying Feminism through the Empowerment Program Kartini Corner: A Gender Mainstreaming Endeavour in Rural Indonesia.” Waskita: Jurnal Pendidikan Nilai dan Pembangunan Karakter, 9(1), 95–108. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.waskita.2025.009.01.7

Ilahiyah, A. I., and Listiani, H. D. (2025). “Reframing Domestic Roles: Language and Gender Equality in Rural Communities.” Indonesian Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 2(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.61251/ijoep.v2i1.118

Selected Conference Presentations

• Presenter, “Women’s Everyday Care amid Conflict in Thailand’s Deep South,” B/ordering the Global: Transnational Feminist Critiques from Asia, Asian Center for Women’s Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 9–11 July 2026
• Presenter, “‘I Am a Widow, Poor and Living in a Village’: What Has Changed after the Beijing Declaration in Rural Indonesia?”, 8th International Conference on the Future of Women, Bangkok, Thailand, 21–22 February 2025

Scholarships, Awards, and International Recognition

• LPDP Scholarship Recipient, Master’s programme, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, 2023–2025
• Invited Guest of Honour, Better Together Challenge, World Culture Open, PyeongChang, Republic of Korea, 3–5 October 2019
• Sultan Agung Foundation Scholarship Recipient, Bachelor’s programme, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Indonesia, 2012–2016

Selected Public Engagement and Creative Practice

• Speaker and Facilitator, NU Islamic Youth Leadership Training, IPNU–IPPNU Central Java, Indonesia, 2025
• Speaker, Kartini Corner: Women Empower Each Other, Yayasan Akar Cahaya Indonesia, Central Java, Indonesia, 2025
• Facilitator, Merawat Bumi, Merawat Rumah [Nurturing the Earth, Nurturing Home], Yayasan Akar Cahaya Indonesia and the Pemalang Regional House of Representatives, Central Java, Indonesia, 2025
• Poetry Performer, presenting work on women’s lives, ecology, care, and local knowledge, 2018–present