What is “Commitments from actors other than national Governments”?

• At COP15, the Parties agreed to adopt an enhanced multidimensional approach to planning, monitoring, reporting, and review to foster implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Paragraph 26 of decision 15/6 states: “The Conference of the Parties invites indigenous peoples and local communities, subnational governments, cities and other local authorities, intergovernmental organizations, other multilateral environmental agreements, non-governmental organizations, women, youth, research organizations, the business and finance community and representatives of sectors related to or dependent on biodiversity, to develop, on a voluntary basis, commitments contributing to national biodiversity strategies and action plans and to the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and to share them through the online platform.”
• At COP16, Parties adopted a template for these commitments. The template is included in decision 16/32 Annex II. 
• These commitments can be entered in the online reporting tool of the CBD which is available at: https://ort.cbd.int/.
• A commitment is aligned with one or more targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework or of a relevant NBSAP. If an actor has different actions related to different targets then these should be entered as separate commitments.

Why submit a commitment?

• Build awareness and accountability: The commitments made in the online reporting tool will be made publicly available.  Making a submission signals that your organization is committed to biodiversity and it includes concrete actions that your organization plans to take towards the implementation of the Framework.
• Support whole-of-society approaches to biodiversity: Commitments will be shared with national governments that are included within the geographic scope of the commitment for their review. Note that national governments can also enter commitments on behalf of an actor within the country in order to share this information directly. Sharing information can demonstrate and foster a whole-of-society approach to implementation of Framework. 
• Contribute to global level tracking of progress: Information from these commitments will be a source of information for the global report on collective progress in the implementation of the Framework at COP-17 and COP-19. 
• Inspire peers: Visible commitments can catalyze actions from others and provide a source of information for organizations to learn from the experiences of other organizations.

Who can submit the commitments?

• Any actors other than national governments: indigenous peoples and local communities, subnational governments, cities and other local authorities, intergovernmental organizations, other multilateral environmental agreements, non-governmental organizations, women, youth, research organizations, the business and finance community and representatives of sectors related to or dependent on biodiversity
• The submission should be on behalf of an organization, not on behalf of an individual.

What is the process?

STEP 1: Register the users who will make the commitment in the ORT 

1. Go to the online reporting tool at: https://ort.cbd.int/
2. Click “Credentials” under “Stakeholders” section in the left bar. (First time users of the online reporting tool must sign up for a CBD account.)
3. Click “Submit new” on Credentials page
4. Fill in the required information and upload documents. The uploaded documents should include a signed letter from the head of organization or an authorized representative that clarifies which user(s) have the authority to submit a commitment on behalf of the organization. 
   1. Note that the letter should nominate one or more person that will have the ability to enter data and information in the online reporting tool. The online reporting tool user(s) does not need to be the Head of the Organization.
   2. If the organization is already an accredited organization then this should be mentioned in the letter. If the organization is not an accredited organization, then a document which demonstrates the legal status of the entity should be uploaded along with the letter. 
   3. In this section enter the geographic scope of the organization and the location of the organization. This information is used to validate that organization’s status, the geographic scope of the commitment is entered as a later stage when the commitment is entered. 
5. The Secretariat of the CBD will validate the above information. If the Secretariat is not able to validate the information then it will be returned to the person who entered the information with a note explaining what information is still needed. 
6. Once the Secretariat has validated the organization then all users listed as ORT users of the organization will have access to submit commitments on behalf of that organization.

STEP 2: Submit commitments

1. The ORT users from step 1 go the online reporting tool at: https://ort.cbd.int/ and login to the system.
2. Go to Stakeholders: My commitments  and then click “+ Submit New”
3. Enter all information related to the commitment. 
   1. Note that a commitment is related to a particular action and the action should be linked with a primary GBF target as well as any other relevant GBF targets, if applicable. 
   2. The geographic scope of the commitment can be national, multinational, regional or global. If it is multinational then the user will need to specific all relevant countries. 
   3. Websites, pdfs and other information can be uploaded as a link at the end of the form.
   4. Once a commitment has been entered, users will be invited to share information on the progress made towards the commitment on a voluntary basis. 
4. If the user wishes to make additional commitments then repeat this step for all relevant commitments. Note that the template is structured such that if an organization has multiple actions related to multiple GBF targets then it is better to enter these as different commitments. For organizations with distinct activities in different countries, it is preferable to enter these as different commitments as this will improve how the useability of the information in the commitment.

STEP 3: Sharing with CBD national focal points 

1. The CBD national focal points responsible for geographical coverage of the commitments will be informed of the commitment. They are able to review the commitments, ask questions to the person that made the submission and in cases where there is an objection they are able to remove their country from the list of Parties in the geographic coverage. 
2. The commitments will be published on the online reporting tool after the review period of four weeks. If all Parties within the geographic coverage object to the commitment, then the commitment will not be published. If some Parties object and others do not, then the commitment will be published and include only the list of countries that have not objected to sharing the commitment. 

Questions:

If you have any questions on this process or on how to use this tool, please contact mea-cbd-monitoring-support@un.org