Gender equality is crucial for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use — different relationships between women and men with biodiversity impact its management. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), adopted at COP15, emphasises gender-responsive actions. The 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) highlighted the importance of COP15 outcomes for gender equality and the KMGBF (Paragraph 62c). Data is vital for mobilising, monitoring, and directing efforts, but the lack of disaggregated data hinders progress.

Decision CBD/COP15/6 calls for women’s active participation in developing and reporting National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). CSW66 stresses enhancing the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data on the environment. Despite some progress, data gaps remain in the gender-biodiversity nexus, with few SDG indicators considering gender.

Women4Biodiversity and UNEP-WCMC have developed a new methodology to help Parties measure progress on Target 23 and the Gender Plan of Action. Although integrating new data sources and methodologies can help address these gaps, gender-disaggregated data for environmental factors and impacts is still scarce. Addressing these issues requires innovative data collection and analysis methods to understand the gendered dimensions of biodiversity better.

The conference aims to support the KM-GBF’simplementation and align with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) objectives by sharing and exploring strategic and practical actions for integrating gender perspectives in environmental data collection and analysis. This conference will provide a collaborative platform to unite diverse views, explore synergies, and identify pathways for advancing gender equality into biodiversity efforts. The outcomes of this conference are intended to significantly contribute to the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the CBD, taking place in Cali, Colombia.

Furthermore, this Conference aims to,

• Explore the significance of gender-disaggregated data in understanding the interconnections between gender and biodiversity, highlighting the current state of data availability and addressing challenges in collecting and prioritising gender and environmental data.
• Present practical tools and methodologies for integrating gender perspectives into environmental data collection and analysis systems.
• Share concrete examples of data-driven policy, strategies and advocacy successes to influence policy and public opinion.
• Provide inputs towards developing indicators on gender in the context of the Monitoring Framework of the KMGBF.

This conference also seeks to underscore the vital role of gender data in environmental decision-making. It continues the Global Conference on Gender and Environment Data, held prior to COP28 in Dubai. The earlier conference issued a Call to Action, and this subsequent event aims to address some of those ambitions. This is a unique opportunity to align the efforts of the Rio Conventions on this crucial issue.

This Conference is hosted and facilitated by Women4Biodiversity in partnership with UN Women, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and supported with funding from SwedBio through Stockholm Resilience Center through Stockholm University.