Global Environment Facility (GEF)

The GEF is one of the premier and pioneer international financial mechanisms working for global environment and sustainable development under the United Nations (UN) system. Since 1992, it has provided grants, funds, and facilities to member states approved by its board of directors through the GEF Council and the trustee—that is, the World Bank. It serves as a financial mechanism for five multilateral environment agreements: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Draught and/or Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Apart from these, it also provides funds and facilities to other major environmental agreements and projects in the areas of forest management, international waters, and marine environment. Its organizational structure comprises the GEF Assembly, the GEF Council, the Least Developed Countries Fund/Special Climate Change Fund Council (LDCF/SCCF), the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, and eighteen Implementing Agencies, along with its Secretariat at Washington, DC.

From its inception, the GEF Trust Fund has been the main source of funding through a multifocal area and six single focal areas: climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, international waters, persistent organic pollutants, and chemicals and waste. The other specialized funds are the LDCF/SCCF, the Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund, and Capacity Building Initiatives for Transparency to support sustainable foods, forests, and cities. In August of this year, the newly constituted ‘Global biodiversity Framework Fund’ was added and is facilitated by the GEF for implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. These funds are available for replenishment by member nations every four years at the GEF Assembly meeting. Further, GEF Council and the LDCF/SCCF Council convene their biannual meetings to allocate and approve the funds for new projects in different focal areas, to follow up the progress of existing projects, and to consider annual reports and budgets. On the basis of the meetings, reports, projects, and partnerships held under GEF, this report has been prepared as an overview of major developments in the past year.

(1) Seventh GEF Assembly Meeting

The seventh GEF Assembly gathered in Vancouver, Canada, on 22–6 August to take stock of the programs, projects, and funds directed towards pollution and nature loss, climate change, and the promotion of locally led biodiversity conservation. This assembly was attended by ministers, government officials, environmentalists, representatives of environmental conventions, members of civil society, Indigenous peoples, and youth groups to ensure a healthy planet with healthy people. The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund was established as a new source of funding for protecting species and ecosystems globally. The assembly, after its plenary session, took note of: the Summary of Negotiations of the Eighth Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund; the GEF Trust Fund Financial Report; the Statement by the GEF Evaluation Office; and the Statement by the GEF Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel.

(2) GEF Council Meeting

The GEF Council, as the main governing body, held two meetings this year to consider and adopt the annual reports, budgets, operational policies and to assess the progress of programs for multifocal and single focal area projects. The sixty-fourth GEF Council Meeting was held on 26–9 June, in Brasilia, Brazil; and the sixty-fifth GEF Council Meeting was convened virtually on 10 October. At the sixty-fourth meeting, the GEF Council considered the GEF Business Plan and Corporate Budget for the Financial Year 2024 and approved the corporate budget from the Trust Fund of US $37.1 million, comprising: US $30.5 million for the GEF Secretariat; US $3.1 million for the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel; and US $3.5 million for the trustee. It also approved the administrative budgets for the Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund and the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency of US $22.4 and US $0.436 million, respectively. At this meeting, the largest in the history of the GEF, the Secretariat presented its work program, requesting a total of US $1.281 billion from the GEF Trust Fund and US $115.9 million from the associated agency for a total work program of US $1.397 billion. It also considered the GEF IEO Annual Performance Report 2023 and the Four-Year Work Program and Budget for the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF under the LDCF and SCCF for a total of US $8.34 million. The council approved the arrangements proposed by the newly established Global Biodiversity Framework Fund and invited the World Bank to act as Trustee for this new fund. Participants at the sixty-fifth GEF Council, in its virtual meeting, considered two important items—Enhancing Policy Coherence through GEF Operations, and the GEF Strategy for Knowledge Management and Learning—and proposed that the GEF Council meetings be held in a hybrid manner in 2024.

(3) LDCF/SCCF Council Meeting

On 29 June, the thirty-fourth LDCF/SCCF Council meeting took place alongside the GEF Council meeting in Brasilia, Brazil. The provisional agendas set forth were adopted. The Work Program for the LDCF/SCCF Fund was reviewed and US $60.13 million was approved for the six projects, along with agency fees, as submitted by the Secretariat. Participants also supported four national climate change adaptation projects in Bhutan, Comoros, Djibouti, and Zambia, along with a global multi-trust fund project. They reviewed the Progress Report on the Least Developed Country Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund; The FY 2023 Administrative Budget and Business Plan for the Least Developed Country Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund; and the Four-Year Work Program and Budget for the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF under LDCF and SCCF. However, they deferred the agenda item to review the FY22 Annual Monitoring Review of the Least Developed Country Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund (<https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/EN_GEF.LDCF_.SCCF_.34_Joint_Summary_Co_Chairs_0.pdf>).

(4) GEF Trust Fund Financial Report

This year, the GEF Trust Fund Financial Report was published as a summary of financial information prepared in 31 March by its trustee, the World Bank, wherein GEF contributing nations pledged 17.393 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) and new donors pledged SDR 3.297 million until this date. The cumulative investment income earned amounted to US $1.639 million and cumulative funding decisions by the GEF Council amounted to US $20.778 million. The fourth GEF-8 Replenishment was held on 7–8 April 2022, with a total pledge of SDR 3.771 million. As of 31 March 2023, the trustee had transferred US $16.256 million of the cumulative commitment of US $19.667 million. Until this period, Canada, Finland, Norway, and the United States had deposited their qualified instruments of commitment under the GEF-8 Replenishment. However, cumulative arrears/part of installments of their qualified instruments of commitment amounting to US $89.8 million were still pending from Nigeria, Egypt, the United States, and the Republic of Korea. Altogether, cumulative funding decisions to agencies comprising projects, project preparation grants, and agency fees to the GEF Secretariat total US $21.861 million as of 31 March (<https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/EN_GEF.C.64.Inf_.05_GEF_Trustee_Report.pdf>).

(5) GEF Monitoring Report

This year, the GEF published its GEF Annual Monitoring Report on the environmental progress made by the GEF financing and portfolio advancements for the period from 1 July 2022–30 June 2023. The progress for six environmental areas were outlined: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, Sustainable Management and Restoration of Land, Greenhouse Gases Emissions Reductions, Trans-boundary Water Management, Chemical and Waste Reduction, and Cross Cutting Strategic Areas. The GEF Trust Fund completed US $781 million in net project commitments from approved projects, with US $590 million full-finance disbursements. The active investment portfolio under GEF financing encompassed up to US $8.6 billion with substantial co-financing of US $59.4 billion. There were a total of 673 Full Size Projects (FSPs) and 218 Medium Size Projects, along with other Enabling Activities. Approximately 80 percent of these projects were found moderately satisfactory and likely to achieve planned outcomes. In addition, there were approximately 2,200 GEF-financed Small Grants Programme grants of US $76.0 million under implementation with core and System for Transparent Allocation of Resources financing.

(6) GEF Independent Evaluation Office Annual Performance Report

The GEF Independent Evaluation Office presented its Annual Performance Report 2023 before the sixty-fourth GEF Council meeting in Brazil by giving an overview of the performance of GEF activities, processes, and factors that affected project performance, quality of monitoring and evaluation systems, and the management action record. It also included a special study on the use of behaviour change approaches in GEF activities until the year 2023. This report provided the results and implementation of a cumulative portfolio of 2,134 completed projects by accounting for US $9.36 billion by GEF funding and US $59.89 billion by co-financing. The report also provided the performance status of 2,134 projects, in which 81 percent of complete projects were rated as satisfactory in their outcomes. It also assessed the use of behaviour change approaches in twenty-eight completed GEF-6 projects, in which sixteen projects had explicit behaviour change indicators affecting the outcomes. The implementation of the management action plan was rated as high or substantial for the majority of recommendations.

(7) GEF Private Sector Engagement Strategy Annual Report

The GEF approved its GEF Private Sector Engagement Strategy: Annual Report 2023 at the fifty-ninth GEF Council meeting. The report covers all the projects of GEF-7 and GEF-8 cycle, including CEO endorsement, GEF Trust funds, SCCF/LDCF funds and the Small Grants Programme. A total of 1,032 private sector entities reached the CEO endorsement stage. During the period mentioned, the GEF project investment was US $839,035,676 for 171 projects: 110 Full Size Projects and sixty-one Medium Size Projects. Eighteen multi-stakeholder platforms with diversified revenue and market coverage were engaged in these 171 projects. There were also a large number of women’s private sectors networks, cooperatives, and associations engaged in these GEF projects during this reporting period.

(8) GEF Small Grants Programme Results Report

The Small Grants Programme (SGP) has been one of the largest and longest standing corporate programmes of the GEF implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme. Playing an active role in 127 countries with 28,675 projects, SGP contributed by achieving the objectives of several multilateral environment agreements and goals of sustainable development providing grants of US $795 million. Also this year, the Small Grants Programme: Results Report 2022–23 was published, assessing the performance results of 124 SGP Country programmes. During this period, the results reported include 1,179 new projects and 792 completed projects. Of this, 2,209 were active projects having total grants of US $76 million from GEF funding and US $82 million from co-financing. The focal areas selected for distribution were biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, land degradation, chemicals and waste, capacity development, climate change adaptation, and international waters. The spotlight countries for the assessment of SGP financing were Morocco for biodiversity conservation, Belize for climate change mitigation, Malaysia for sustainable land and forest management, Maldives for chemicals and waste, Vietnam for international waters, and Guatemala for capacity development. In this period, SGP also made targeted efforts to support greater social inclusion through projects and grants in different countries such as Lesotho, Algeria, Panama, Bhutan, Kenya, Senegal, and Colombia.

(9) GEF Projects Approved This Year

The GEF Council approved the work programme comprising forty-five projects and programmes amounting to US $1.397 billion, including US $1.281 million from the GEF Trust Fund and US $115.9 million from associated agency fees. It included both Project Identification Forms and Program Framework Documents. The above amount of US$ 1.397 billion was requested to be drawn from all five focal areas: biodiversity (US $652.5 million); climate change (US $ 226.3 million); international waters (US $154.3 million); land degradation (US $160.9 million); and chemicals and waste (US $84.3 million). Separately in biodiversity focal areas, the sixty-fourth GEF Council approved the highest funds of US $652.5 million for global, regional, and national projects, such as: combating threats from aquatic invasive alien species in Venezuela; mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation in national laws and policies in Chile; and promoting biodiversity conservation within integrated landscapes in Brazil (<https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/documents/2023-06/EN_GEF_C.64_04_Rev.01_Work%20Program%20for%20GEF%20Trust%20Fund_0.pdf>).

Under the climate change focal area, the GEF Council approved US $226.3 million for global, regional, and national projects this year. The projects were related to, for example: circular construction of building for low emissions in Chile; promotion of zero-emission building through climate technologies in Brazil; low-emission and resilient community energy in Argentina; green hydrogen energy in China; and renewable biogas initiatives in India. In the chemicals and waste focal area, US $84.3 million was approved for the removal of chemicals and waste at the global, regional, and national levels. At the global level, the Shifting to Zero Waste Against Pollution project was supported with GEF financing and co-financing. At the regional level, the Fortifying Infrastructure for Responsible Extinguishments project was also approved for such finances to Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. In addition, certain projects at the national level were also supported with such finance for development of the small-scale gold mining sector in Paraguay and the reduction of persistent organic pollutants and unintentional persistent organic pollutants in Eswatini.

In the focal area of international water, the GEF Council approved US $154.3 million for global and regional projects. At the global level, projects were approved for plastic reduction in the oceans involving Costa Rica, Kenya, and Vanuatu. In addition, the council approved three major regional projects in this focal area: the protection of amazon aquifer systems (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela); the management of the Red Sea Marine System (Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Jordon, Sudan, and Yemen); and trans-boundary management of the Incomati and Maputo river basin (Eswatini, Mozambique, and South Africa). For the land degradation focal area, the GEF Council approved the US $160.9 million. The project for land degradation neutrality in Southern Haiti was approved to sustain environmental services and food security. In the multi focal area, the GEF Council approved funds for diverse projects, including: wildfire risk management in Lebanon; restoration of a biosphere reserve in Georgia; governance of natural resources in Honduras; ecosystem restoration in the bio-cultural corridor of the Central West of Mexico; and strengthening of natural and productive landscapes in Panama (<https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/documents/2023-06/EN_GEF_C.64_04_Rev.01_Work%20Program%20for%20GEF%20Trust%20Fund_0.pdf>).

(10) Next GEF Council Meeting

The GEF Council has scheduled its next biannual meeting, along with the LDCF/SCCF meeting, for 5–9 February 2024 at Washington D.C.