UN Women and the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), have been working together to strengthen the substantive bases for underscoring the linkages between gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights, and biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Towards this end, and building on past work, UN Women, with technical support from UNEP-WCMC, prepared submissions to the CBD on views on possible targets, indicators and baselines and on the draft monitoring framework for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

In December 2018, at its fourteenth meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the CBD decided that the process to develop the post-2020 global biodiversity framework would be gender-responsive (Decision 14/34).2 Parties agreed on a comprehensive and participatory preparation process which would enable the systematic integration of a gender perspective and ensure appropriate representation of women and girls. Contributions received to date from Parties, other governments and observers re-affirm the importance of addressing gender considerations in the development of the framework to achieve both gender equality and global biodiversity objectives.