Operationalising Target 23, through the indicator on National Implementation of the Gender Plan of Action?

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Date
Meeting
COP 16

Meenal Tatpati, Women4Biodiversity

At COP15, Parties to the Convention adopted Target 23 on gender equality and participation, as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF, Decision 15/4) also stresses that the successful implementation of the framework will depend on ensuring gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. At the same time, Parties also adopted the post-2020 Gender Plan of Action (2022-2030) (GPA, Decision 15/11). The 2023-2030 GPA highlights specific gender-responsive actions, deliverables, and timelines for various stakeholders, including Parties, the Secretariat, the Global
Environment Facility (GEF), women’s groups/networks, and other relevant organizations, marking significant progress from previous plans. An approach for designing and using indicators to help monitor the implementation progress of the GBF was subsequently proposed through CBD/SBSTTA/24/3 and subsequently, the Monitoring Framework (Decision 15/5).

According to the CBD, biodiversity indicators are infor-mation tools that summarise data on complex environmental issues to indicate the overall status and trends of biodiversity. They can be used to assess national performance and to signal key issues to be addressed through policy interventions and other actions. .

Gender-sensitive indicators are essential for measuring progress towards commitments Parties have made
regarding gender-responsiveness in the implementation of the KMGBF Target. Though missing a headline indi-cator, a set of component and complimentary indicators were adopted at COP15. Parties will consider the recommendations of SBSTTA26 towards the development of the Monitoring Framework. SBSTAA26 has recommended a global binary indicator for Target 23 as well as a component indicator for Target 23 (23.b) on the national implementation of the Gender Plan of Action.

However, the component indicator while adopted, lacked a robust methodology. Women4Biodiversity and UNEP-WCMC have collaborated with several Parties and key stakeholders to develop a methodology for the said indicator that will support. Parties to comprehensively measure progress towards gender-responsive implementation of the Framework. During SBSTTA26 , Parties officially recognised the process of development of the methodology (CBD/SBSTTA/26/L.10). Since then, the metadata has been co-developed with Parties, having undergone a process of peer-review and updating.

Component and complementary indicators are additional indicators that provide more detailed insights on progress towards the goals and targets of the KM-GBF. The component indicator on the National Implementation of the Gender Plan of Action is therefore crucial in the monitoring framework, enabling Parties to track progress towards Target 23 more accurately, and providing valuable information that can feed into the binary indicator for this target.

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