Photo credit: Aleksandar Todorovic/Adobe Stock
New partnerships with the African Wildlife Foundation and the Tropical Biology Association will generate new support to operational focal points to the Global Environment Facility across Africa, helping them learn from one another and work more effectively to monitor their portfolio of GEF-funded projects.
The partnerships will provide support for field visits to projects, meetings for improved portfolio management, and data and knowledge sharing. Although these activities will be optional, all operational focal points in Africa who would like to take part can request the assistance to do so. National training on project oversight will also be delivered in some cases.
The African Wildlife Foundation will provide support to operational focal points in 23 countries in Eastern and Central Africa: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
The Tropical Biology Association will support operational focal points in 25 countries in Western and Southern Africa: Benin, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, and Zimbabwe.
Introductory webinars were held in February 2025 by the African Wildlife Foundation and Tropical Biology Association to introduce the initiative and preview the content to the operational focal points, focused on ensuring they have the tools and means to effectively monitor and oversee the portfolio of GEF-funded projects in their countries.
The GEF is also working to finalize agreements with other organizations to expand the initiative in the Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe regions.