Strategic Partnership for Nutrient Reduction in the Danube River and Black Sea - World Bank-GEF Nutrient Reduction Investment Fund: Tranche 3

1.The World Bank-GEF Investment Fund (IF) is the investment arm of the GEF Strategic Partnership on the Black Sea/Danube Basin which also funds two regional projects, the Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Project for the Black Sea littoral countries and the Danube Regional Project in the Danube Basin, both focusing mainly on capacity building activities. The Fund constitutes a proposed envelope of US$70 million, to be approved by the GEF Council in three tranches, to partially grant-finance investment projects in the Black Sea/Danube Basin that aim at nutrient reduction. In May 2001, the GEF Council approved the first tranche of the IF, US$20 million. The second tranche of US$16 million was approved by the Council in May 2002. Eligible areas of intervention for support under the Fund include investments to remediate and mitigate nutrient pollution in municipalities, industry and agriculture, as well as policy and legal reform and capacity building for enhanced monitoring and enforcement. The Investment Fund provides a focused regional framework for country level investments aimed at a common goal of combating eutrophication in the Black Sea and allows for a streamlined approach to project processing by the GEF. 2.This progress report has been prepared to request tranche 3 of the Investment Fund in the amount of US$ 34 million. Following the instructions in paragraph 20 of the IF Project Brief endorsed by the GEF Council in 2001, the report describes the project pipeline and the stage of development of each project proposal, discusses progress to date on program leveraging targets, and addresses cooperation and coordination of the Fund with the regional projects under the Partnership and other key partners.