GEF Report to UNCCD COP10

By Mohamed Bakarr, GEF Sr. Environmental Specialist

The GEF Secretariat prepared and submitted its Report to the tenth session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD/COP-10) in Changwon, Gyeongnam Province, Republic of Korea, from October 10 to October 21, 2011. This was the first Report to the UNNCD COP after the {link:node/2552 text=GEF Instrument;] was amended to list the UNCCD among the Conventions for which the GEF plays the role of financing mechanism.

The report provided information on GEF activities in Sustainable Land Management (SLM) as they relate to the Land Degradation Focal Area (LD), specifically desertification and deforestation. It covered the period July 2009 to June 2011 during which the GEF transitioned from its fourth (GEF-4) to fifth (GEF-5) replenishment phase. As a result, the Report also included highlights of policy and programming reforms related to GEF role as financial mechanism for the Convention.

At the conclusion of GEF-4, approximately US$ 340 million was invested in projects addressing SLM during the four year period (2006-2010), leveraging US$ 2.3 billion in co-financing. The investment involved 61 countries with a total of 91 projects, including 42 in sub-Saharan Africa, 10 in Asia, 10 in Middle East and North Africa, 10 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and one in Central and Eastern Europe.  During GEF-4, the LD was not under the allocation system.  In order to avoid future regional imbalances, the GEF-5 replenishment participants proposed that the System for Transparent Allocation of Resources (STAR) be extended to the LD, a decision that was agreed by the GEF Council.

GEF-5 (2010-2014) completed the first full fiscal year during this reporting period, with just over US$ 52 million invested, leveraging US$ 1.6 billion in co-financing. In addition to LD resources, the projects and program also leveraged GEF resources in other focal areas as follows: US$ 33 million from Biodiversity, US$ 42 million from Climate Change, and US$ 19.62 million from the Incentive Mechanism for Sustainable Forest Management and REDD-plus. In addition to the focal area activities, the Report also highlighted investments in other GEF funding windows related to SLM. This included investments in the Kyoto Adaptation Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

Links: http://www.unccd.int/cop/officialdocs/cric10/pdf/23eng.pdf