Conventions
The GEF provides funding to assist developing countries in meeting the objectives of international environmental conventions. The GEF serves as "financial mechanism" to four conventions:
- The Convention on Biological Diversity
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
- The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
The GEF also supports various UN Agency Action Programmes like the Barbados Programme of Action, the GPA and the FAO Code of Conduct for Fisheries. However more often the GEF supports and help negotiate regional conventions like the Barcelona, Cartagena, Bucharest, and Danube Conventions.
The conventions, for which the GEF serve as financial mechanism, provide broad strategic guidance to the two governing bodies of the GEF: the GEF Council and the GEF Assembly. The GEF Council converts this broad guidance into operational criteria (guidelines) for GEF projects
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The GEF is the designated institutional structure operating the financial mechanism of the Convention; it applies the guidance, including policy, strategy, program priorities, and eligibility criteria relating to access to and use of its resources from the Conference of the Parties.
• See COP1 guidance; COP2 guidance; COP3 guidance; COP4 guidance; COP5 guidance; COP6 guidance; COP7 guidance; COP8 guidance; and their compilation.
• Also see the document on institutional structure to operate the financial mechanism under the Convention (1994); policy, strategy, program priorities, and eligibility criteria regarding access to and use of financial resources (1994).
At every ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the GEF provides a report on its biological diversity activities.
• See 1995 report to COP-2; 1996 report to COP-3 (ENG/SPA/FR/AR/RU); 1998 report to COP-4 (en es fr); 2000 report to COP-5 (en es fr ch); 2002 report to COP-6 (en es fr); 2004 report to COP-7 (en es fr); 2006 report to COP-8 (en es fr ar ru zh).
The Executive Secretary regularly provides updates on the development of biodiversity issues, under the Convention to the GEF Council.
- Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, to the 28th GEF Council Meeting
- Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, to the 32nd GEF Council Meeting
- Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, to the 3rd GEF Assembly
- Earlier CBD statements to GEF Council’s
The CBD relationship with the GEF is governed by Memorandum of Understanding between the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Council of the Global Environment Facility (Decision III/8)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Under the Convention and the Protocol, developed country Parties (Annex II Parties) provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties for implementing the Convention. To facilitate this, the Convention designated the GEF as the financial mechanism,- subject to review every four years.
The financial mechanism is accountable to the COP, which decides on its climate change policies, program priorities, and eligibility criteria for funding, based on advice from the Subsidiary Body For Implementation.
In addition to providing guidance to the GEF, Parties have established three special funds: the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), under the Convention and managed by the GEF; and the Adaptation Fund (AF), under the Kyoto Protocol for which the GEF provides secretariat services.
The relationship between the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC and the GEF Council was agreed to in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) contained in decision 12/CP.2 and decision 12/CP.3.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Article 14 of the Stockholm Convention entrusts the GEF as its financial mechanism, following the principles laid down under Article 13 relative to the new and additional financial resources necessary to enable developing countries and countries with economies in transition to implement the Convention. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Conference of the Parties and the Council of the GEF gives effect to this relationship. Guidance to the financial mechanism has been provided by each subsequent COP meeting.
• SC-1/9 Guidance to Financial Mechanism
• SC-2/10 Financial Resources and Mechanisms
• SC-2/11 Additional Guidance to the Financial Mechanism
• SC-3/16 Additional Guidance to the Financial Mechanism
• SC-4/27 and SC4/28 Additional Guidance to the Financial Mechanism
• Statement by Donald Cooper, Executive Secretary of the Stockholm Convention and Co-Executive Secretary of the Rotterdam Convention, to the Council of the GEF, June 2009
At every ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the GEF provides a report on its activities related to persistent organic pollutants.
UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
On September 2003 the Conference of the Parties accepted the GEF as a financial mechanism of the Convention. The funds allocated by the GEF, support activities that address the issue of desertification and deforestation.
- Report of the GEF on the measure taken to assist the preparation and implementation of action programs of affected African country parties under the UNCCD.
Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer
The GEF, although not linked formally to the MP, supports implementation of the Protocol in Countries with Economies in Transition. The GEF Secretariat has exchanged letters with the secretariats of the Montreal Protocol and the Multilateral Fund that show areas of cooperation and coordination.
The GEF Secretariat regularly participates to meeting of the Parties to the MP and other subsidiary bodies, and informs the parties of its work of relevance. The Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat provides regular updates on the development under the Protocol to the GEF Council and Assembly.
Multilateral Agreements on International Waters and Transboundary Water Systems
The GEF is also associated with many global and regional multilateral agreements that deal with international waters or transboundary water systems. As such, the GEF assist its recipient countries with international waters issues as they undertake work under the following conventions:
• The Global Ship Ballast Water Treaty
• The UN Law of the Sea Treaty
• The MARPOL treaty for shipping (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships)
• The UN Agreement on conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.
The GEF also supports various UN Agency Action Programs like the Barbados Programme of Action, the Global Programme of Action (GPA), Code of Conduct for Fisheries. However, more often the GEF supports and help negotiate regional conventions like the Barcelona, Cartagena, Bucharest ,and Danube Conventions.
Conventions and Capacity Development
For successful implementation of international conventions for which GEF is serving as the financial mechanism, developing countries need capable individuals and effective institutions and organizations to work together in a well-functioning political, economic ,and social system – also called as “the enabling environment.”
Capacity development is a primarily endogenous and domestically driven process that depends on clearly answering questions involving the appropriate capacity for what and for whom. Capacity development in the GEF is designed to adhere fully to the concerns and priorities expressed by the international community (for example, the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness), an inherently political and complex process that cannot be rushed, with outcomes that cannot be expected to evolve in a controlled and linear fashion.
As indicated in country reports to conventions and decisions of COPs, there is a limited capacity in countries to implement the Conventions fully and to benefit from involvement in them. Recognizing this limitation, in 1999 the GEF Council approved (GEF/C.13/9) the Capacity Development Initiative (CDI), which made a broad assessment of capacity needs, particularly in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, land degradation and cross-cutting capacity, the extent and nature of bilateral and multilateral efforts to assist in meeting those needs, and a strategy for a GEF-specific action plan to enhance those efforts.
The GEF Council, recognizing the need for stronger effort to develop capacity for implementation of international conventions in 2003 adopted the decision (GEF/C.22/8)on a strategic approach to enhancing capacity building and defined four pathways to achieve it.
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