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One-day pre-COP event · CBD COP17

Bridging the Gender-Biodiversity Data Gap for Global Targets

  • 18 October 2026 · 08:00–18:00
  • Blue Zone, CBD COP17 · Yerevan, Armenia

About the conference

From Data to Action

Advancing Gender-Responsive Biodiversity Policy

The inaugural Gender and Environment Data Conference, in Cali in 2024, established a critical precedent: the lack of sex-disaggregated and gender-responsive data is a significant barrier to implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

GED2026 is a one-day “pre-COP” event in Yerevan that builds on that foundation. The focus now shifts from identifying data gaps to putting solutions into practice: integrating gender-responsive data into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), national monitoring systems and global biodiversity processes.

Policymakers, researchers, data practitioners, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women and youth will develop practical messages and proposals to contribute to CBD COP17 / CP-MOP 12 / NP-MOP 6.

Why this matters

Women and girls play vital roles in biodiversity stewardship, local knowledge, monitoring and sustainable use. Yet they remain undercounted in data, underrepresented in decision-making and underserved by financing and benefit-sharing.

  • Too little sex- and gender-disaggregated environmental data
  • Limited links between gender and environmental datasets
  • Gaps in capacity, tools and funding
  • Insufficient use of data in policy and financing decisions

GED2026 turns the commitments made in 2024 into practical action.

Programme themes

Four Streams

1

Progress, Gaps and Commitments: Global Stocktake and Country Snapshots

Mapping the current availability of gender-disaggregated biodiversity data: where progress is being made, where data remains scarce, and what this means for tracking the KMGBF’s gender commitments.

Moderator: UN Women

2

Financing Gender Data

Good practice experiences and national examples of how gender data is financed within biodiversity and environmental policy and programming.

Moderator: UNDP

3

Community-Driven Data Collection, Tools and Methodologies

How communities collect, monitor and report on policies and projects. Community-driven data complements official statistics by documenting local priorities, traditional knowledge and the distribution of benefits and burdens.

Moderator: International Land Coalition (ILC)

4

From Data to Policy

Bringing together the key messages from the three streams, harmonizing collective actions and validating the outcome of the conference for CBD COP17 and local, national and regional work.

Moderator: Women4Biodiversity

18 October 2026 · 08:00 – 18:00

Programme

  1. 08:00Registration and coffee
  2. 09:00Welcome and Opening CeremonyOpening keynote and high-level remarks from the CBD COP17 Presidency, CBD, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, GEDA and the host organization · Group photo
  3. 10:00Stream 1: Progress, Gaps and CommitmentsModerator: UN Women
  4. 11:00Coffee break
  5. 11:30Stream 2: Financing Gender DataModerator: UNDP
  1. 13:00Lunch
  2. 14:00Stream 3: Community-Driven Data Collection, Tools and MethodologiesModerator: International Land Coalition (ILC)
  3. 15:30Coffee break
  4. 16:00Stream 4: From Data to PolicyModerator: Women4Biodiversity
  5. 17:30ClosingUN Women, Global Greengrants Fund, UNDP and ILC

Speakers

Meet the Speakers & Moderators

Speaker and moderator cards are updated as confirmations are received.

MODERATOR

To be announced

Role
Organization, Country

SPEAKER

To be announced

Role
Organization, Country

SPEAKER

To be announced

Role
Organization, Country

SPEAKER

To be announced

Role
Organization, Country

Register to attend

Join Us in Yerevan

The Conference brings together over 100 delegates. Click Register to complete the registration form. You will receive an automatic confirmation of your submission, and we will follow up with further details.

Contact

[email protected]
women4biodiversity.org

#GED2026#Women4Biodiversity#COP17Armenia

Hosted and organized by

Women4Biodiversity UN Women Global Greengrants Fund

Co-partners

UNDP International Land Coalition

At

CBD COP17 Yerevan, Armenia