By Edda Fernandez, Senior Advisor Policy at AVAAZ. Representative of the CBD Women’s Caucus to the GBF Fund Council.
The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was launched at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2023, in response to decisions made at CBD COP15. Its goal is to increase financing for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and strengthen national-level biodiversity management, planning, policy, governance, and finance, as outlined by the GEF. The World Bank serves as the fund’s trustee, while the GBF Fund Council is responsible for deciding which projects will receive support.
As of November 2024, 12 countries and subnational contributors—Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the Province of Québec, Spain, and the UK—had pledged $383 million USD to the GBFF. By January 28, 2025, the World Bank reported a balance of $326.8 million USD, with contributors now including Canada, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Luxembourg, France, and Japan. The World Bank financial report is regularly updated [Link].
The GBF highlights the need for $200 billion USD annually to close the biodiversity finance gap (GBF Target 19). However, the lack of sufficient financial resources in the GBFF remains a major concern. A concerning reality is that despite pledges from developed countries to support biodiversity action, they have yet to provide adequate financial backing for the full implementation of the GBF.
GBFF Council Meeting (December 20, 2024)
The third meeting of the GBFF Council was held virtually on December 20, 2024, lasting only a few hours. During this meeting, 18 projects to be supported by the GBFF were approved. Edda Fernández and Priyanka Pandey, representing the CBD Women’s Caucus, participated, and observers were granted the opportunity to speak.
As in previous meetings, representatives from Women, Youth, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities spoke in unison. This time, the Youth representative delivered the statement. Our main message was the need to be actively involved in the project review process from the very beginning, rather than merely serving as passive observers. We again called for changes to the process, ensuring it aligns with the mandates of the GBF and several CBD COP decisions. The GEF Secretariat took note of our requests.
Advocacy for Change
The CBD Women’s Caucus continues to advocate for GEF processes to be aligned with the mandates of the CBD COP, ensuring meaningful participation from women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities in both biodiversity conservation and sustainable use decisions, as well as in funding allocations. We will persist in pushing for greater inclusivity and gender-responsiveness within the GEF.
The GBFF Council is Party-led, and its constituencies are structured similarly to those of the GEF Council. For more information, see [Link].
Edda Fernández emphasized, «As representatives of our global constituencies, we speak on behalf of a community closely monitoring the GEF and GBFF processes. We demand reforms to ensure fairness, efficiency, and equity in resource allocation, as well as a more balanced governance structure. Unfortunately, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth continue to lack a meaningful voice in decisions about who and what to fund.»
Next Steps
The CBD Women’s Caucus will continue advocating for the full, equitable, inclusive, and gender-responsive participation of women in decision-making, particularly regarding biodiversity finance.
It is crucial for the Caucus to be involved in evaluating the projects presented to be supported by the GBFF to ensure alignment with the Gender Plan of Action adopted at COP 15 (decision 15/11).
