Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, 3rd Operational Phase

Launched in 1992, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) is rooted in the belief that global environmental problems can be best addressed if local people are involved and direct community benefits and ownership are generated. In fourteen years of operation, SGP has worked with thousands of community –based organizations (CBOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in now 84 countries in five world regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Arab States, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and Latin America/ Caribbean. In partnership with these local organizations, SGP has demonstrated that even with small amounts of funding (SGO grants are less than $50,000), local communities can undertake activities that will make a significant difference in their lives and environments and contribute to global environmental benefits at the same time. Since its inception, SGP has operated in decentralized, democratic, transparent, and country-driven manner, through National Coordinators (NC) and National Steering Committees (NSC). SGP grant-making, guided by Country Programme Strategies (CPS) developed on the basis of a global Strategic Framework in tandem with national environmental priorities, has funded close to 5,000 projects worldwide. The programme has paid especial attention attention to local and indigenous communities and gender concerns, and aimed for the replication and sustainability of its initiatives. As such, the programme has influenced national policies and donor agendas by increasing awareness of global environmental issues and communicating lessons learned, including best practices from community-based experiences. As SGP matured during the Second Operational Phase (1999-2005), the GEF Council has authorized SGP to expand at an accelerated pace, increasing the number of new countries incorporated annually from five to ten, and has enjoined SGP to give priority to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in this further expansion. Since the launch of SGP’s Third Operational Phase in 2005, the questions of project sustainability and impact have become increasingly significant and SGP, as part of the wider GEF, has been called upon to address more effectively the matter of project and programme impacts and global benefits. This will entail refocusing SGP monitoring and evaluation processes and communications strategies towards impact and assessment and knowledge management. In the Third Operational Phase, SGP will intensify its efforts to facilitate increased access of the same local stakeholders to GEF resources to undertake activities in the GEF focal areas, by supporting outreach, capacity building, and building networking among grantees, This will be especially critical as the programme expands to include more LDCs and SIDS. The project continues with the following six outcomes: Global reach of SGP increased, especially to address global environmental problems in vulnerable countries; Country programmes implementing well designed project portfolios that incorporate new GEF Ops, SPs and focal areas; Existing country programmes maintained and strengthened; Local and global benefits of SGP demonstrated and applied; SGP-funded project sustainability enhanced; SGP potential as a GEF corporate programme more fully realized. The GEF SGP is implemented by UNDP on behalf of the three implementing agencies of the GEF – UNDP, World Bank and UNEP – and executed by UNOPS. SGP will continue to operate in a highly decentralized and country-driven manner through an NC and NSC in each participating country with support from the UNDP Country Office and in some countries, National Host Institution (NHI) or host NGO. The UNDP-Central Programme Management Team (CPMT) and UNOPS will provide as before, coordination, global guidance, support and supervision. The UNDP GEF Unit at UNDP Headquarters in New York manages all of its GEF activities, including SGP. The UNDP GEF Executive Coordinator and his/her Deputy are accountable, both to UNDP and to the GEF Secretariat and Council, for all UNDP GEF activities, including SGP. UNOPS, flowing agreed procedures, policy and strategy with UNDP-CPMT will continue to be responsible programme management (in financial and administrative areas) and execution support services in the following areas: personnel recruitment and contract administration for project staff and consultants; subcontracts for host institutions; monitoring, supervision and authorization and monitoring of expenditures; training and guidance on the above to country-level staff; and support for initiation of the programme in new countries.