SBI plays a critical role in shaping the institutional, financial and practical conditions through which commitments under the CBD are translated into action. At SBI-7, this included consideration of the Global Review and accelerated implementation of the KMGBF, resource mobilization and the financial mechanism, digital sequence information, capacity-building and technical and scientific cooperation, the Nagoya Protocol, knowledge management, mainstreaming, and biodiversity education.

Across these discussions, gender and justice are not separate from implementation: they shape who participates in decisions, whose knowledge and contributions are recognized, who has access to finance and technical support, and how the costs and benefits of biodiversity action are distributed. Several negotiations also raised a fundamental question about how Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth are recognized within the Convention, including whether their distinct rights, roles and contributions remain visible or are subsumed within broader categories of actors and stakeholders.

This CBD Women’s Caucus analysis examines selected SBI-7 outcomes through this gender and justice lens, highlighting progress, unresolved issues and priorities for COP17.

As the Convention’s scientific and technical body, SBSTTA plays a critical role in shaping the evidence, guidance and technical foundations that inform decisions under the CBD. At SBSTTA-28, this included consideration of the Global Report and Monitoring Framework, the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, new global guidance on sustainable wildlife management, the strategic review of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas, and scientific and technical work on marine and coastal biodiversity.

Across these discussions, important questions of gender, rights, knowledge and equity were embedded within issues often treated as primarily scientific or technical: what counts as evidence and whose knowledge is recognized; how progress is measured; how differentiated impacts are captured; what safeguards accompany technical guidance; and whether women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are recognized as knowledge holders and contributors to biodiversity governance. This CBD Women’s Caucus analysis examines selected SBSTTA-28 outcomes through this gender and justice lens, highlighting both advances and issues that remain unresolved as the recommendations move to COP17.