Women’s participation and gender considerations in country representation, planning and reporting under the BRS Conventions

IUCN Global Gender Office has collaborated with the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions to produce a report that investigates the level of women’s participation and gender considerations in country representation, planning and reporting under the BRS Conventions. 

This report takes stock, exploring:

  • How women are represented as delegates at the meetings of the Conferences of the Parties (COPs), as members and observers of Conventions’ subsidiary bodies, and as national focal points;
  • How gender equality considerations are included in Parties’ reporting mechanisms under the BRS Conventions, including in initial National Implementation Plans (NIPs) under the Stockholm Convention, and in the most recent National Reports under the Basel and Stockholm Conventions;
  • How gender considerations are included in the Rotterdam Convention’s Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Circular.

Background

Over recent years, the framework for environmental and sustainable development policymaking and programming has significantly strengthened from a gender perspective - priming the global community for more effective, efficient and equitable implementation processes and outcomes. While full delivery toward the relatively siloed Millennium Development Goals stagnated, commitments are renewed and enhanced in the more interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focusing on both gender equality and environmental sustainability as priorities and as critical, complex cross-cutting issues, in tandem. The Secretariat of BRS Conventions has recently updated a substantive and forward-looking Gender Action Plan (GAP) adopted by the COPs, enhancing information-gathering, capacity and strategies for implementation.

Although progress in advancing key actions identified in the original GAP is being made, identifying indicators and tracking data—especially for example with respect to Parties’ activities and reporting—is still missing. Having gender related indicators and a baseline would allow enhancing the Secretariat’s ability to fully realize the objectives of the GAP and the overall goals of the Conventions.

Organized by

This project is implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in coordination with the Secretariat of the BRS Conventions.

The Government of Germany has kindly provided financial support for this project.

Project objectives

The objective of this initiative is to support the BRS Conventions Secretariat in the implementation of the GAP, namely by establishing a data baseline.

  • The baseline is constructed using the following indicators and datasets:
  • Participation in the COPs: breakdown of participation (government representatives and NGO representatives) by gender;
  • Participation in the subsidiary bodies (in particular POP Review Committee and Chemicals Review Committee): breakdown of participation (government representatives and NGO representatives) by gender;
  • Contact  points under the three conventions: breakdown of contact points by gender;
  • Gender keyword inclusion in reports: an analysis of the most-recent documents submitted by Parties to each Convention will explore the quantity and quality (e.g., context, purpose) of inclusion of women’s and gender considerations.