Gender Data archivos - CBD Women's Caucus

Strengthening Gender-Responsive Technical and Scientific Cooperation for KM-GBF Implementation: The Role of Regional and Subregional Support Centres

c1652146 — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:30:58 +0000

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position or opinions of the CBD Women’s Caucus

On 4 August, the CBD Women’s Caucus — in collaboration with RCMRD, CARICOM, SPREP, UNEP-WCMC and IUCN CEESP — hosted a side event at SBI-7 in Nairobi on one of the most underexplored questions in biodiversity governance: how can regional and subregional support centres within the Technical and Scientific Cooperation (TSC) Mechanism become genuine partners for gender-responsive KM-GBF implementation? The session was livestreamed on the CBD Women’s Caucus YouTube channel, reaching participants both in Room CR-11 and online. Throughout the evening, a live Mentimeter ran in parallel — giving everyone in the room and joining remotely a direct channel to contribute their perspectives on the challenges, opportunities and practical measures needed to strengthen gender-responsive TSC implementation.

The event brought together representatives from regional support centres, women’s organisations, Parties and technical partners to exchange regional experiences, identify gaps and generate practical recommendations ahead of COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia. Speakers underscored a shared message: the question is not whether gender should be integrated into technical and scientific cooperation — it is how to make the cooperation itself inclusive, from knowledge generation to access to technology, to decision-making and policy implementation.

Opening: Why This Conversation Matters

Ms. Edda Fernández Luiselli, Chair of the CBD Women’s Caucus Board of Directors, opened the session by setting the scene — and the urgency. She noted that despite the clear relevance of women’s roles and rights to biodiversity implementation, there had been limited discussion on how the TSC Mechanism could integrate gender-responsive approaches into its mandates, programming, technical assistance, partnerships and implementation support. Grounded in the principle that global goals mean little if they do not foster national implementation, she outlined two key messages from the Caucus: first, that TSCs can play an important role by facilitating capacity-building, peer-learning and cooperation on gender-responsive implementation at the regional level; and second, by mobilising and engaging a regional network of women’s organisations to support implementation through a whole-of-society approach. This conversation, she stressed, was a starting point — not a conclusion.

The TSC Mechanism: Where Are We Now?

Ms. Sojung Kang, Associate Expert at the CBD Secretariat, presented an overview of the TSC Mechanism via video — where it stands, what it does, and how gender considerations are being addressed. She explained that the mechanism, established at COP15 and operationalised at COP16 with 18 regional and subregional support centres, operates as a network of networks — connecting countries with the knowledge, expertise, technologies and partners they need across Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia. The centres act as connectors and facilitators: promoting demand-driven cooperation, serving as one-stop service centres, mobilising resources and facilitating matchmaking, sharing knowledge and lessons learned, and maximising synergies with existing mechanisms.

On gender, Ms. Kang was candid: the Global Coordination Entity is mandated under COP Decision 16-3 to develop guidelines to ensure gender-responsive approaches and the active engagement of women, youth and Indigenous Peoples and local communities — but this work had not yet been taken forward due to resource constraints, and the gender position at the Secretariat had been vacant for some time. She nonetheless announced a clear commitment for the next biennium: the development of gender guidelines will be included among the Secretariat’s priorities, as a gender specialist is expected to join the team. She called on Parties and organisations to review TSC work plans, identify opportunities to integrate gender-responsive approaches, partner with TSC centres on capacity development, and work with the Global Coordination Entity to develop the gender guidelines collectively.

Setting the Scene for the Panel

Ms. Tiffany Straza, International Policy and Conventions Lead at UNEP-WCMC, introduced the panel and framed the moment. She highlighted the strong political mandate for gender-responsive KM-GBF implementation and the particular relevance of the TSC Mechanism as a vehicle for cooperation — not just with countries, but between TSC centres themselves and with the Global Coordination Entity. She acknowledged the difficult context in which the work is taking place — where organisations are being asked to do more with less — and noted that a whole-of-society approach and genuine cooperation are among the most effective responses. She reminded participants that the Mentimeter was available for those in the room and online to share their perspectives throughout the session.

CARICOM: Technical Cooperation as a Necessity, Not a Luxury

Ms. Teshia Jn Baptiste, Senior Project Officer at CARICOM, offered a Caribbean small island developing states perspective via video. She highlighted that women across the Caribbean are scientists, researchers, farmers, natural resource managers, entrepreneurs, indigenous knowledge holders, community leaders and environmental advocates — highly visible in tertiary education, public sector leadership and international environmental negotiations including BBNJ and the CBD. The challenge is not the absence of capable women or of women’s leadership, but whether gender-responsive approaches are being applied deliberately and consistently across biodiversity planning, technical cooperation, financing, implementation and monitoring.

Ms. Jn Baptiste highlighted the CARICOM TSC Five-Year Work Plan as a concrete example of what is possible — with provisions for a regional roster of experts that could systematically include women scientists and indigenous women knowledge holders, a Caribbean-wide biodiversity data hub, regional biodiversity monitoring frameworks, and regional guidelines for gender-disaggregated data production. She also noted the CARICOM TSC Action Plan’s recognition of traditional knowledge, free, prior and informed consent, and engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities — creating opportunities to recognise indigenous women as partners in biodiversity governance. She was direct about what is still missing: dedicated gender expertise, weak monitoring frameworks, insufficient resources for gender analysis, and engagement with women’s organisations that is frequently ad hoc rather than systematic. Better data, she stressed, will lead to better policies and more effective interventions.

RCMRD: Gender-Blind Data and the Limits of Event-Driven Partnerships

Ms. Abigael Sum, Communications Specialist at RCMRD, delivered one of the most candid and resonant interventions of the evening — bringing an African regional perspective that captured both what is working and what is not. She reframed the central question: the issue is not whether gender should be integrated into technical and scientific cooperation, but how to make the cooperation itself inclusive — from knowledge generation to access to technology, to decision-making and policy implementation.

She was honest about RCMRD’s gaps. Capacity needs assessments across the countries the centre serves show that support is needed not just in technical areas — GIS, earth observation, biodiversity monitoring, spatial planning, biodiversity reporting and data management — but also in inclusive planning approaches and stronger integration of women, youth and IPLCs. The data pipeline is not systematically disaggregated. Partnerships with women’s organisations tend to be event-driven, built around specific activities rather than sustained over time — meaning there is no long-term relationship with these organisations, and this remains a significant challenge.

She also named the fundamental data problem: a lot of the biodiversity data RCMRD works with is gender-blind. The centre can map exactly where a wetland or a forest is, or where restoration is happening — but it often cannot tell who depends on it, who manages it day by day, or how the loss of that ecosystem affects women differently. If that data is not captured, the policy built on it will not capture it either. And underlying all of this: the demand for gender-responsive technical support already outstrips what is being delivered.

SPREP: Staying Real to the Ground

Ms. Monifa Fiu, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Adviser at SPREP, spoke on behalf of the Pacific Small Island Developing States — a region where SPREP hosts the TSC but is operating with no dedicated resources. Despite this constraint, SPREP is leveraging existing projects, bilateral partnerships and the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation to advance inclusive biodiversity action. She highlighted the Pacific Islands Conference for Nature Conservation — now in its 11th edition, to be held with the Government of New Caledonia — as a key space for amplifying voices from the ground up, including through a Global Youth Biodiversity Network chapter and a Pacific Nature First Indigenous Voices Dialogue. Her practical message for the TSC network: ensuring that communication and messaging does not blur is essential — because women’s groups and socially vulnerable groups in Pacific communities do not need to deal with complexity. The work must stay real and connected to the issues on the ground.

IUCN : Embedding Gender from the Start

Ms. Sonia Peña Moreno, Director of the IUCN Centre for Policy and Law, spoke on behalf of IUCN, which hosts four regional TSC centres across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Mediterranean, Asia and West Asia. She shared concrete examples of gender-responsive action already underway. The IUCN Asia Regional Office held its first two steering committee meetings in April and June 2025 — and for both, invited Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International and Women for Biodiversity to the table, ensuring women’s organisations were embedded in decision-making from the very beginning, not just consulted. The same approach will be followed for the first in-person steering committee meeting, planned for Bangkok in December.

The Asia Regional Office is also working jointly with the Asia Protected Areas Partnership, the International Ranger Federation, the Asia Ranger Federation and Women for Biodiversity to produce the first-ever publication on Asia’s Women Rangers: Voices from the Frontlines of Conservation — compiling stories from Nepal’s anti-poaching units, Bhutan’s high-altitude patrols and Sri Lanka’s elephant conflict officers. This publication will be launched at next year’s World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress in Panama. Meanwhile, the IUCN West Asia Regional Office has published the first-ever gender-sensitive protected area management effectiveness tool for Jordan, and in Egypt and Saudi Arabia is aligning national protected area management plans with gender criteria through the IUCN Green List Standard

The Secretariat's Role: Coordination as a Vehicle for Gender Integration

Ms. Kristina Taboulchanas, Programme Manager at the CBD Secretariat, brought the perspective of the Global Coordination Entity — the body responsible for facilitating coordination, communication and collaboration across the TSC network. She welcomed the conversation and expressed genuine excitement at hearing what the different centres are already doing on gender — noting that many centres have not yet been reached out to, and that this remains an area to work on. She confirmed that the development of gender guidelines is included in the Secretariat’s work plan for the next biennium, and that the Secretariat is actively looking to identify organisations that could contribute to and become part of the network of networks. She highlighted the monthly and annual coordination meetings as concrete vehicles for mainstreaming gender integration across centres — spaces where centres already learn from each other, share good practices and tools. This, she stressed, is the Secretariat’s core role: bringing everyone together to share.

CBD Women's Caucus: Intentionality, Guidelines and the Network of Networks

Ms. Amelia Arreguín Prado, Coordinator of the CBD Women’s Caucus, closed the panel with three key messages. First, she welcomed the conversation itself — noting that from the Caucus’s perspective, bringing together the TSC centres to discuss what the gender mandate actually means in practice was something that had been missing. She called on all participants to learn from each other and to build on what is already working.

Second, she addressed the recurring claim that gender approaches cannot be implemented due to lack of funding or capacity — arguing that what matters above all is intentionality. Even small actions, when deliberate, can shift practice. She pointed to the decisions being taken at SBI-7 and heading into COP17 as the moment to embed that intentionality into concrete commitments. Third, she issued a direct call to Parties: request the gender guidelines from the Secretariat and TSC centres, because if they are not requested, they will not be developed.

She closed with a vision of collective action — naming gender focal points as superpowered allies, eager to support and to be supported — and calling on everyone to see what they can contribute. The CBD Women’s Caucus, with its 900+ members and the Gender and Biodiversity Focal Points Network, stands ready to partner.

Closing: Three Key Messages

Ms. Edda Fernández Luiselli closed the session by distilling the evening’s discussion into three core messages: the strong political mandate for gender-responsive implementation must be grounded in regional cooperation; the TSC Mechanism is a necessity — not a luxury — for gender justice, environmental justice and the exchange of diverse knowledge systems; and intentionality is the common strength that will carry the work forward. The CBD Women’s Caucus, she reaffirmed, is open and ready to engage with all centres — on the ground and throughout the negotiations leading to COP17.

Key Messages

The side event generated the following key messages:

The TSC Mechanism has a clear political mandate for gender-responsive implementation — but work on gender guidelines has not yet been taken forward due to resource constraints. This must change in the next biennium.
The question is not whether gender should be integrated — it is how to make the cooperation itself inclusive, from knowledge generation to decision-making.
Biodiversity data remains largely gender-blind — we can map ecosystems but cannot tell who depends on them, who manages them, or how their loss affects women differently.
Partnerships with women’s organisations must be long-term, sustained and institutionalised — not event-driven.
Good practices are already underway across regions and must be systematically shared across the network of networks.
Parties must actively request gender-responsive guidelines from the CBD Secretariat and TSC centres — because if they are not requested, they will not be developed.
The Gender and Biodiversity Focal Points Network and the CBD Women’s Caucus — with its 900+ members — stand ready to partner with TSC centres.

🎥 Watch the full recording here

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Advancing Gender-Responsive Biodiversity Data Systems for Effective Implementation and Monitoring of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

c1652146 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:01:22 +0000

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position or opinions of the CBD Women’s Caucus

On 27 July, the CBD Women’s Caucus, in collaboration with Guatemala, UNEP-WCMC, IUCN-CEESP, IIED, and WEDO/GEDA, hosted a side event at SBSTTA-28 in Nairobi focused on one of the most persistent blind spots in biodiversity governance: the near-total absence of gender-responsive data in the systems meant to monitor and report on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). The session brought together technical experts, government representatives, and community researchers to share evidence, identify gaps, and chart a path toward more inclusive monitoring.

Speakers underscored a shared message: without gender-disaggregated data and the meaningful participation of women in generating it, biodiversity monitoring will keep missing the people whose knowledge and labor sustain conservation on the ground and the policies built on that incomplete picture will remain less robust than they need to be.

About the Event

Setting the Scene: Current State of Monitoring and Data Gaps

Ms. Melisa de Kock walked participants through the current state of gender-responsive monitoring under the Convention. She pointed to the Component Indicator on National Implementation of the Gender Plan of Action, whose methodology Parties acknowledged in Decision 16/31 as an important but underused tool, and noted that sex-disaggregated data remains largely absent not just from Target 23 reporting, but from nearly every people-related target across the KM-GBF.

Ms. Melisa stressed that closing this gap is not only about what gets reported, but how: national reports must draw on whole-of-government data collection and genuine whole-of-society input from women and women’s groups, not just the institution formally responsible for CBD reporting. She was direct about the consequences of inaction — without this information in national monitoring systems, biodiversity policy will continue to be built on an incomplete evidence base, at real cost to its effectiveness.

Government Experience: Closing the Silos Between Ministries

In a video message from Guatemala, Ms. Marina Lopez Sincal, the country’s Gender Focal Point, shared her government’s vision for a national biodiversity and gender information system capable of disaggregating data by sex, age, linguistic community, and people of origin. She described the core challenge as one of interoperability: without a coordinated system bringing environmental institutions together, efforts risk duplication, mechanisms remain isolated, and the evidence needed to demonstrate women’s, Indigenous Peoples’, and local communities’ contributions to conservation never fully materializes.

Ms. Marina was clear that this is not a peripheral initiative for Guatemala, but a strategic and foundational commitment one meant to ensure that decision-making no longer leaves behind the very people most engaged in biodiversity management. She closed with a call for stronger inter-institutional articulation, so that national systems genuinely reflect the collective vision the KM-GBF sets out.

Discussions also laid the groundwork for stronger collaboration among civil society organisations ahead of COP17, including joint messaging on key policy issues, movement-building beyond CBD spaces, and continued engagement around an emerging ecological justice agenda.

For the CBD Women’s Caucus, participation in the meeting reinforced the importance of ensuring that feminist perspectives remain embedded within broader biodiversity debates. As preparations continue towards COP17, the Caucus remains committed to working alongside allies to advance biodiversity governance that is equitable, rights-based and centred on the knowledge, leadership and lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, Women and youth

Territorial Perspectives: Knowledge That Remains Invisible

Speaking to the session’s territorial perspectives segment, Ms. Mega Ayu Lestari of the ICCA Consortium, drawing in part on her own family’s roots in Maluku, Indonesia laid out in detail the forms of knowledge that formal biodiversity reporting systems still fail to capture. She named the unpaid, unindexed labor of women who fetch water, preserve seeds, and maintain soil moisture; the technical expertise embedded in practices like gambir crafting in Sumatra and forest-based postpartum remedies; and the kinship systems — such as the Lorelindu philosophy of Mopahilolonga Katuvua, the harmony between people, nature, and the divine that resist conventional economic valuation altogether.

Ms. Mega Ayu Lestari also highlighted a hopeful development: ICCA’s new memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment, enabling data-sharing with the national CBD focal point on the basis of free, prior and informed consent and community data sovereignty. She was equally candid about the barriers that remain — patriarchal bias, consultation spaces that leave little room for women to speak freely, and a global reality in which women shoulder over 75 percent of unpaid care labor. Her call was for governments to recognize customary and scientific knowledge as equally valid, and to invest directly in the collective, women-led initiatives already doing this work on the ground.

Methods and Evidence: Generating Gender-Responsive Biodiversity Data

Closing the session, Ms. Shruti Ajit of the CBD Women’s Caucus presented Advancing Gender Justice in Biodiversity Data and Policy, a joint initiative with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). She highlighted that while women play critical roles in biodiversity conservation, their knowledge and priorities remain largely invisible in the data that informs policy. Drawing on a global survey of women’s organisations, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, researchers, NGOs, and practitioners, she noted that valuable gender-responsive biodiversity data is already being generated through community monitoring and traditional knowledge systems. However, these efforts remain under-resourced, disconnected from national monitoring systems, and constrained by limited funding, technical capacity, and digital infrastructure. The survey also revealed a strong demand for peer learning and practical exchange.

In response, the CBD Women’s Caucus and IIED convened a global peer-to-peer learning series spanning the biodiversity data cycle, culminating in a practical handbook of methodologies and tools for gender-responsive biodiversity data to be launched ahead of CBD COP17. She concluded with a message that improving biodiversity data is fundamentally about improving governance, emphasizing that gender-responsive data goes beyond sex-disaggregated indicators to recognizing diverse knowledge systems and ensuring inclusive, participatory data processes. She called for greater investment in women-led organisations and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, and for embedding gender considerations throughout the entire biodiversity data lifecycle to strengthen implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Moderated Dialogue: From Data to Policy Influence

Following the presentations, the session moved into a moderated dialogue, facilitated by Ms Cristina Eghenter (Global Governance Policy Senior Expert (WWF International/CBD Women’s Caucus), bringing all speakers together to respond to three guiding questions: How do we generate better gender-responsive biodiversity data? How do we integrate these data into national systems and reporting? And how do we ensure these data actually influence policy and global assessments?

🎥 Watch the full recording here

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Scientific and Technical Needs to Strengthen Gender-Responsive Implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF)

c1652146 — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:53:58 +0000

This policy brief presents preliminary findings from the CASCADE Gender Knowledge Exchange Project, developed in collaboration with the CBD Women’s Caucus, the University of Oxford, and University College London. It examines the scientific and technical needs required to strengthen gender-responsive implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), with a particular focus on Target 23 and the Gender Plan of Action (2023–2030). The analysis draws on a global survey of Gender and Biodiversity Focal Points and CBD National Focal Points across regions.

The findings highlight strong global commitment to gender-responsive biodiversity action, alongside persistent structural and institutional barriers. These include limited recognition and resourcing of gender focal points, fragmented coordination across institutions, gaps in gender data and monitoring systems, and restricted access to decision-making processes. While many countries have begun integrating gender considerations into NBSAPs, this often remains at a technical level and does not yet address underlying inequalities or ensure transformative outcomes.

This publication aims to inform ongoing CBD processes, including SBSTTA and the mid-term review of the Gender Plan of Action, by identifying priority areas for action. It calls for strengthened investment in gender-responsive data systems, capacity building, meaningful participation, and policy integration, while emphasising the need for sustained financial and institutional support to enable effective and equitable implementation of the KM-GBF.

Use this brief to strengthen gender-responsive biodiversity planning, support advocacy, and advance the implementation of Target 23 and the Gender Plan of Action.

Year: 2025
Type: Policy Brief
Authors: CASCADE, CBD Women’s Caucus, University of Oxford, and University College of London
Themes: Gender focal points, Gender Plan of Action, Gender perspective, NBSAPs implementation

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Policy Brief: Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy

c1652146 — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:00:35 +0000

This policy brief presents findings from a collaborative effort led by the CBD Women’s Caucus and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to better understand how women-led and community-based organisations generate and use biodiversity data with a gender perspective. It highlights the critical role that women and girls in all their diversity, including from Indigenous Peoples, and from local and Afro-descendant communities, play in producing knowledge that informs conservation, sustainable use and rights-based approaches.

Drawing on diverse experiences and practices, the brief explores how gender-responsive biodiversity data is currently collected, managed and applied across contexts. It identifies key strengths, including the centrality of lived experience, traditional knowledge and community-rooted evidence, while also examining persistent barriers such as limited funding, weak data systems, restricted access to decision-making spaces and insufficient recognition of this work.

This report forms part of the broader initiative “Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy”, led by the CBD Women’s Caucus in collaboration with IIED. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacities of women’s organisations to generate and use gender-responsive data, support the co-creation of evidence to influence biodiversity policy, and foster collective learning processes across regions.

Learn more about the initiative here.

Year: 2026
Type: Policy Brief
Authors: Shruti Ajit, Amelia Arreguín Prado, Fatima El-Aaraby (CBD Women’s Caucus)
and Karen Wong-Pérez, Francesca Booker, Cinzia Cimmino (IIED)
Themes: Data Value Chain, Biodiversity Monitoring, Gender-responsive data

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Findings Report: Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy

c1652146 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 07:55:42 +0000

This findings report, developed by the CBD Women’s Caucus in partnership with IIED, presents an exploratory, network-based mapping of capacities, practices and needs related to gender-responsive biodiversity data among women-led and community-based organisations. It examines engagement across the biodiversity data value chain — from data collection and management to analysis and use — based on 70 survey responses from 33 countries.

The findings show that women-led and community-based organisations are already generating vital, community-rooted biodiversity data. Organisations are particularly active in data communication and use, while also contributing significantly to data collection and analysis. However, important gaps remain, particularly in data management, where lower levels of engagement may affect the long-term accessibility and usability of evidence. The report also highlights the central role of qualitative and narrative-based approaches — such as interviews, storytelling and focus groups — in capturing lived experiences and advancing gender-responsive knowledge systems.

Despite strong engagement and ethical intent, organisations face persistent structural barriers, including limited funding, access to technology and technical capacities. Critically, the report finds that the main constraint to policy impact is not the lack of data, but its limited recognition and uptake in decision-making processes. At the same time, the findings point to significant opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and for strengthening a whole-of-society approach to biodiversity monitoring and reporting, building on the existing contributions of women-led organisations to advance more gender-just biodiversity governance.

This report forms part of the broader initiative “Advancing gender justice in biodiversity data and policy”, led by the CBD Women’s Caucus in collaboration with IIED. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacities of women’s organisations to generate and use gender-responsive data, support the co-creation of evidence to influence biodiversity policy, and foster collective learning processes across regions.

Learn more about the initiative here.

Year: 2026
Type: Report
Authors: Shruti Ajit, Amelia Arreguín-Prado, Fatima El-Aaraby (CBD Women’s Caucus)
and Karen Wong-Pérez, Francesca Booker, Cinzia Cimmino (IIED)
Themes: Data Value Chain, Biodiversity Monitoring, Gender-responsive data

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Call for expressions of interest: peer learning series on gender and biodiversity data

c1652146 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:07:05 +0000

The CBD Women’s Caucus, in collaboration with IIED, is working to enable women’s organisations to generate and use gender-responsive biodiveristy data.

Following a recent report that focused on recognising women-led biodiversity data as vital to advance biodiversity conservation, we are launching a new series centred around peer learning.

We invite women-led organisations, community-based organisations, local civil society actors and individual experts working at the intersection of gender and biodiversity to express their interest in participating in a peer-to-peer learning on gender and biodiversity data

This series will bring together practitioners to share experiences, build practical skills, and strengthen the use of gender-responsive biodiversity data.

The five sessions will take place between May and July 2026:

Induction – 7 May 2026, 14:00-15:00 UTC (Mandatory)
Data collection – 21 May 2026, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Data analysis & management – 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Data use & communication – 18 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Closing – 2 July 2026, 14:00-15:00 UTC (Mandatory)

The space is for individuals and organisations that are currently working on biodiversity and gender issues, have experience or interest in generating or using biodiversity data, and are looking to strengthen their capacities across different stages of the data cycle.

Selected participants will be expected to engage in:

One orientation session, which is mandatory, for context setting and engagement
Three thematic sessions: data collection, data management and analysis, and data use and communication
One closing reflection session, which is mandatory, to outline future strategies
Inter-session activities, including sharing experiences and contributing to learning materials

A key outcome of this process will be the development of a Handbook on Methodologies and Tools for Gender and Biodiversity Data. Participants who actively contribute to this process will be acknowledged as co-authors of the Handbook.

How to apply

Interested individuals and organisations are invited to express their interest by completing the registration form below.

Closing date: 15th April 2026

Application form

Selected participants will be informed with the relevant information by the end of April.

For any questions, please contact: genderandbiodiversitydata@cbdwomenscaucus.org

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Making Space for Women’s Leadership in Biodiversity Data and Evidence

c1652146 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 03:08:04 +0000

On 5 March, ahead of 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), the CBD Women’s Caucus, in collaboration with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), convened a virtual launch of its «Findings Report: Advancing Gender Justice in Biodiversity Data and Policy». The session brought together voices from across regions and institutions to reflect on a shared challenge: how to ensure that biodiversity monitoring is not only technically robust, but also rights-based, inclusive, and grounded in the lived realities of women.

About the event

The session opened with Ms Shruti Ajit, Project Officer at the CBD Women’s Caucus, who presented the key findings from the assessment. Her remarks set the tone by highlighting a critical disconnect, while women-led, community-based organisations are already generating rich and nuanced biodiversity data, this knowledge continues to remain under-recognised in formal policy and monitoring systems.

Drawing from both the report and complementary insights from expert engagements, the presentation underscored a central paradox. Across countries, women-led and community-based monitoring systems are producing valuable data on biodiversity trends, traditional knowledge, and rights. Yet, governments,often constrained by incomplete datasets,are not fully leveraging these contributions. This represents a missed opportunity to adopt a truly whole-of-society approach to monitoring the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

The discussion was further enriched through a 20-minute segment featuring expert reflections from Ms Ciere Booth (Programme Officer, Policy Innovation Area, UNEP-WCMC), Mr Venge Nyirongo (Intergovernmental Specialist- Climate Change, Sustainable Development and the Rio Conventions, UN Women), Ms Charlotte (Lotty) Clare (Advocacy and Research Officer, Karen Environmental and Social Action Network), and Ms Marina López Sincal (Gender and Biodiversity Focal Point, Government of Guatemala). Together, they brought institutional, community, and policy perspectives into conversation,grounding the report’s findings in practice.

"It is not only about what we measure, but also how we measure it"

Building on the assessment, Ms Ciere Booth emphasised that rights-based monitoring is not only about what we measure, but also how we measure it. It requires examining whose knowledge is valued, who participates in monitoring processes, and what systems are in place to enable meaningful inclusion. She pointed to the potential of community-based monitoring systems to complement national datasets, while also noting that institutional recognition remains a key barrier.

Mr Venge Nyirongo reinforced this by highlighting that the challenge is not a lack of evidence, but a lack of recognition. Community organisations are actively engaged in data collection, analysis, use, and communication, yet gaps in data management create bottlenecks that limit long-term usability and policy uptake. He further underscored the importance of strengthening the gender-responsive data value chain,recognising that data systems are shaped by power, participation, and social norms.

Grounded insights from Ms Charlotte Clare illustrated how these dynamics play out on the ground. Through community-led research initiatives, Indigenous Karen communities are generating critical biodiversity knowledge,ranging from ethnobotanical studies to wildlife monitoring and ecosystem restoration. Women play a central role in these processes, blending traditional knowledge with scientific approaches, while also strengthening leadership and decision-making within their communities. At the same time, challenges related to funding, human resources, and data organisation continue to limit the scale and sustainability of these efforts.

From a government perspective, Ms Marina López Sincal reflected on ongoing efforts in Guatemala to institutionalise gender-responsive approaches within biodiversity governance. The establishment of a dedicated Gender Unit and the development of strategies to promote women’s participation signal important progress. She also highlighted the role of disaggregated data in informing inclusive policies, and the need for stronger governance frameworks to integrate community-generated data into national systems.

Across these interventions, a consistent message emerged: the issue is not the absence of data, but the systems that fail to recognise, integrate and resource it

The session concluded with reflections from Ms Karen Wong Pérez, Senior Researcher at IIED, who outlined key next steps.The next phase will focus on a peer-to-peer learning journey, directly responding to the needs identified in the assessment. This will bring together women’s organisations to exchange experiences, share methods, and strengthen collaborative learning. Planned between April and June, the formative process will engage women working at national and regional levels, particularly those working with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant groups, through targeted modules. These efforts will culminate in the co-creation of a Gender and Biodiversity Data Methods Handbook, ensuring that the evidence generated actively informs policy and practice.

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