SANBI-GBIF is the South African Voting Node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). The Vision of the SANBI-GBIF Node is to contribute to South Africa’s sustainable development by facilitating access to biodiversity and related information on the internet. 

 The Node was established in 2003, following the signing of an Memorandum of Understanding with GBIF, at ministerial level.  SANBI-GBIF (or SABIF as it was formerly known) is a network consisting of national partners and stakeholders who provide and publish data through the SANBI-GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) portal or to GBIF directly via the IPT, enabling the Node to support national reporting.  This also includes the end-user community that makes use of the data. The scope of the efforts of the SANBI-GBIF Node has extended towards driving regional and international collaborations and strategic approaches to supporting biodiversity informatics.

 Biodiversity data and information is the key resource which drives research and innovation, supports planning and policy development processes, informs decisions and is the basis to evaluate progress and impact. It is a key building block for evidence-based decision-making. SANBI-GBIF therefore aims to mobilise biodiversity data, support capacity enhancement in biodiversity informatics and drive data use, through highlighting the impacts of data mobilisation across the data-science-policy interface.