Biodiversity Information for Development: Building a global community of practice to mobilize and use biodiversity data

Abstract

Biodiversity Information for Development, or BID, is a programme funded by the European Union and led by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), aiming to increase the amount of biodiversity information available for use in scientific research and policymaking. In its first phase, BID provided funding to 61 projects in the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific between 2015-2019, with a strong focus on developing capacity to mobilize, manage and use biodiversity data within the project teams and their institutions, and through the establishment and strengthening of national nodes. The capacity development approach centred on establishing a community of practice to bring in the expertise in the broader GBIF network to support the project teams in meeting their goals. This involved designing curricula for two workshops in the areas of data mobilization and data use for decision making; developing activities and materials to strengthen a base of mentors and trainers; establishing technical helpdesk support; and matchmaking to provide mentoring support to the funded projects. The community of practice, through mentoring and reuse of the workshop materials, has been expanded to support the capacity development needs in other programmes, reaching other regions, including Asia, South-East Europe and Eurasia. During this presentation, we will review the main findings of the BID impact study and guiding examples from within the BID programme to identify the key successes and lessons learned relating to capacity development. As this approach has wider application to the biodiversity community, we invite discussion how we can build on the experience through the BID programme to further develop our community of practice, narrowing knowledge gaps between various groups of biodiversity professionals.