Publish Date : 27-Dec-2018
A new four-year investment cycle, GEF-7 has been approved in the 55th Global Environment Facility (GEF) meeting benefiting 25 countries.
The funding announced of $157.8 million has been announced and is expected to attract an indicative US$819.7 million in financing from other sources.
The three-day Council meeting, the first to be held since governments endorsed the new GEF-7 strategy and the accompanying US$4.1 billion replenishment of its trust fund, approved various measures to further improve the GEFs efficiency, accountability and transparency.
This includes new policy procedures to speed up the preparation, endorsement, implementation, and closure of projects, and, among other things, new policies to improve access to information, and an updated policy on environmental and social safeguards throughout the GEF project and programme cycle.
Closing the meeting, GEF CEO and Chairperson, Naoko Ishii thanked council members for the extensive, rich and fruitful three days. Repeating her call at the Council opening for urgent action to get back on track, she said much progress has been made and now GEF-7 can start!
Deputy Director of the Environment Protection Agency, Sierra Leone, and co-chairperson of the 55th GEF Council, Abdul Bakarr Salim said, We have reviewed different policies and modified them to provide a framework that will make the GEF work better.
The Council received reports from the GEFs Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, Independent Evaluation Office, and held discussions on GEFs relations with multilateral environmental agreements, the GEF-7 Non-Grant Instrument Program, and options for responsible investment of funds in the GEF Trust Fund.
Following the well-received special session on gender at this years Civil Society (CSO) Forum, the Council decided that plastics management to avoid pollution would be the topic for the CSO consultation at the 56th GEF Council meeting in June 2019.
Immediately following the 55th GEF Council, a meeting of the 25th Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) / Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) Council was held. The first work program in GEF-7 for LDCF, consisting of six projects and requesting a total of US$45.85 million was approved.
For LDCF: Belgium, Walloon Region (EUR 2.9 million), Denmark (DKK 150 million), Finland (EUR 2 million), France (EUR 20 million), and The Netherlands (US$9.1 million). Switzerland announced a commitment of US$13.25 million over four years to the LDCF and SCCF, with 75% going to the LDCF.
Sweden highlighted its contribution of SEK 135 million to LDCF in 2018. Germany will finalize its contribution payments of EUR 25 million before the end of the year.
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