Open Call: Host a Session at the CBD COP17 Women Hub

c1652146 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:19:53 +0000

Come and Host Your Session at the COP17 Women Hub

The CBD Women’s Caucus invites organisations, networks, and individuals to propose activities for the Women Hub at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), taking place in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Women Hub, located inside the Blue Zone, will be a small and welcoming space for exchange, collective learning and connection around gender and biodiversity. We invite creative and participatory formats — facilitated conversations, peer-learning exchanges, storytelling, and other activities that make meaningful use of a small-group setting.

Proposals should have a clear connection to gender justice and biodiversity policy and action. We particularly encourage proposals led by or meaningfully involving women’s organisations and women from Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant communities.

What You Need to Plan Your Session

⏱️ Session duration: 60 minutes
📐 Space: approximately 5 x 5 metres
👥 Maximum capacity: 20 people
🖥️ Available equipment: screen and projector
💰 Space fee: Space fee: Free of charge for all selected sessions
🍽️ Catering: cannot be provided
🗣️ Interpretation: cannot be provided

Selected organisers will be responsible for organising and facilitating their session and coordinating any speakers or contributors.

As the number of available slots is limited, submission of a proposal does not guarantee selection. The programme will be curated to ensure diversity, balance and complementarity.

Don't Miss These Dates

Open Call: 21 August 2026
Final date for proposals: 5 September 2026, 23:59 UTC
Selection results: 15 September 2026

Ready to Apply?

Apply here

🔗Curious what these sessions looked like in practice? Read our Women’s Pavilion Full Report from COP16 — 35 sessions hosted by women’s organisations, networks and grassroots groups from around the world.

We look forward to your ideas and to creating the COP17 Women Hub together!

La entrada Open Call: Host a Session at the CBD COP17 Women Hub se publicó primero en CBD Women's Caucus.

Rooted in Armenia, Rising Toward Yerevan: How 60+ Women Prepared to Shape COP17

c1652146 — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:31:27 +0000

Armenian Women Taking Action for Nature: Preparations for CBD COP17

The Women’s Roadmap to CBD COP17 continues…

When the CBD Women’s Caucus set out to support Armenian women’s preparations for CBD COP17, the goal was clear and ambitious: make sure that when the world’s biodiversity negotiators gather in Yerevan this October, Armenian women and gender justice advocates walk in not as observers, but as informed, connected, and organised participants ready to shape the outcome.

Over two months, that intention became the Armenian Women Taking Action for Nature: Preparations for CBD COP17, a four-part training series co-created with the COP17 Armenian Presidency, the CBD Secretariat, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. What unfolded was more than a training programme. It became a genuine community: 60+ participants from across Armenia, 15+ expert speakers, four partner organisations, and more than 20 presentations and resources shared and revisited through a living Miro Board all built on countless questions, discussions, and connections that outlasted every session.

This is the story of that journey, session by session, and where it leads next.

Session 1: Laying the Foundation — Understanding Biodiversity Governance

27 May 2026

Every journey needs a map, and Session 1 gave participants theirs. The launch opened with remarks from H.E. Ambassador Mher Margaryan (COP17 Armenian Presidency), Ms. Edda Fernandez (Chair of the Board, CBD Women’s Caucus), Mr. Olivier Rukundo (CBD Secretariat), and Ms. Laura Milne (Country Director, Armenia, Raoul Wallenberg Institute) — a lineup that signalled, from the very first minutes, just how many institutions stood behind this initiative.
The session then turned to substance, with Ms. Claudia Ituarte-Lima (Raoul Wallenberg Institute), Mr. Olivier Rukundo (CBD Secretariat), and Ms. Amelia Arreguín Prado (CBD Women’s Caucus) walking participants through the Convention on Biological Diversity itself — its structure, protocols, and governance processes, and, crucially, the many entry points through which women and civil society can engage with it.
For a group ranging from first-time newcomers to biodiversity policy to seasoned advocates, this session struck the right balance: demystifying a famously technical process while making clear that it is, at its core, a space open to their participation. It set the tone for everything that followed: collective learning, built together.

Session 2 – Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting

10 June 2026

If Session 1 was the map, Session 2 was the terrain. Four speakers guided participants through how global biodiversity commitments actually translate into national action.

Ms. Cicilia Wangari Githaiga (Lawyer & Advocate, Kenya) opened with the architecture of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Targets 22 and 23, and the Gender Plan of Action.
Ms. Ana Di Pangracio (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Argentina) unpacked National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and the concrete ways women’s organisations can engage with them.
Ms. Tiffany Estrada (UNEP-WCMC) introduced the GBF Monitoring Framework, showing how non-state actors can feed directly into the global review of collective progress.
And Ms.Laura Bermudez (Environmental Attorney, Colombia) closed the session with a walkthrough of the 7th National Report, making the case for why women’s contributions belong in national reporting from the start.
The conversation that followed was as valuable as the presentations: participants compared notes on Armenia’s own NBSAP process, asking sharp questions about monitoring, reporting, and how to ensure diverse women’s voices are truly heard before COP17.

Session 3: Gender in CBD

24 June 2026

Session 3 turned inward, asking a foundational question: where does gender actually sit within the CBD?
Ms. Amelia Arreguín Prado (CBD Women’s Caucus) traced the answer back to 1992, showing how gender has evolved within the Convention and how it now shows up in the KM-GBF’s Section C and Targets 22 and 23.
Ms. Shruti Ajit (CBD Women’s Caucus) walked participants through the CBD’s Gender Plans of Action, from the first GPA in 2008 to the current 2023–2030 plan and its three outcomes for gender-responsive implementation.
Ms. Annabel Kennedy (WECF) brought the story up to the present with the GPA Mid-term Review, highlighting real progress from SBI-6 evidence alongside the gaps, particularly on funding commitments and focal point mechanisms that still need strengthening before Yerevan.
Closing the session, Mr. Karen Khachatryan (Ministry of Environment, Republic of Armenia) offered a national lens on gender justice within NBSAPs, speaking directly from Armenia’s experience preparing to host COP17.

Participants left this session with more than facts: they left with a shared vocabulary for talking about gender in biodiversity policy, and no shortage of questions about participation indicators and women-led conservation successes worldwide.

Session 4 – Understanding the COP17 Agenda & Key Technical Topics

8 July 2026

The final session was where everything came together. Understanding a CBD COP means understanding how it actually works — so Mr. Olivier Rukundo (CBD Secretariat) opened by explaining how negotiations are organised, and how an agenda item travels from plenary to contact group and back. Mr. Karen Khachatryan then introduced the COP17 agenda itself: 31 substantive items, including the Global Review of Collective Progress, Resource Mobilisation, and the implementation of Article 8(j).
Ms. Cristina Eghenter (WWF International & CBD Women’s Caucus Board) unpacked what may be the meeting’s defining moment, the first-ever Global Review of collective progress, and what the draft global report reveals. Ms. Laura Bermudez turned to Article 8(j) and the SB8J agenda items, covering traditional knowledge, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and resource mobilisation strategies for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. And Ms. Amelia Arreguín Prado closed with Resource Mobilisation and the Financial Mechanism, making a clear case: direct access to funds for women, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities must be non-negotiable at COP17.

The session and the series closed with words that will stay with participants long after Yerevan. Mr. Aram Manoukyan (Republic of Armenia) called inclusive participation essential to the Convention’s goals, reaffirming Armenia’s commitment to a COP17 legacy built on inclusion. Mr. Olivier Rukundo (CBD Secretariat) commended the initiative for levelling the playing field ahead of the negotiations, pledging the Secretariat’s continued partnership with the CBD Women’s Caucus. Ms. Laura Milne (Raoul Wallenberg Institute) spoke to civil society’s role in keeping biodiversity policy inclusive, rights-based, and gender-responsive. And Ms. Mwanahamisi Singano (CBD Women’s Caucus Board) left participants with a challenge: to treat this training not as an ending, but as proof of what meaningful participation looks like — and to carry that knowledge, those connections, and that network into national and global advocacy.

What This Journey Built

Strip away the agendas and the acronyms, and what this series really built was a community. Sixty-plus women, four partner organisations, fifteen-plus speakers, and a shared conviction that biodiversity governance is stronger when women help write it. What made the programme genuinely special were not only the thematic presentations but the questions asked after them, the experiences exchanged in between, and the connections formed that will long outlast the four sessions themselves.

The learning doesn’t stop here. As CBD COP17 draws closer, the real work of engaging, advocating, and shaping outcomes is just getting started.

To every Armenian woman and organisation who joined this journey: thank you for your energy, your questions, and your commitment to gender justice.
This is not the end. It is just the beginning.

See you in Yerevan!

La entrada Rooted in Armenia, Rising Toward Yerevan: How 60+ Women Prepared to Shape COP17 se publicó primero en CBD Women's Caucus.

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