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Small Grants
Programme (GEF UNDP/SGP) globally in 122 countries is funded by Global
Environment Facility (GEF) as the corporate program of the
GEF
is executed by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), on
behalf of the GEF partnership. In India the program is hosted
through the National Host Institution (NHI) i.e - Centre for
Environment Education (CEE) as the responsible party for the
GEF
Small Grants Programme which is being implemented under a full
scale project of the GEF by Ministry of Environment & Forest, (MoEF)
Government of India (GoI) and executed through the United Nation
Development Program (UNDP).
GEF UNDP/SGP seeks to support
initiatives, which demonstrate community-based innovative,
gender sensitive, participatory approaches and lessons learned
from other development projects that lead to reduce threats to
the local and global environment problems. The GEF GEF
UNDP/SGP Programme
is sourced with a belief that global environmental problems can
only be addressed adequately, if local people are involved in
planning, decision making and sharing roles and responsibilities
at all levels. It strongly believes that with small amounts of
funding, the communities can undertake activities and local
actions, which make "Significant Difference" to their
environment and livelihoods.
CEE is a national level institution supported by Ministry of
Environment and Forest, Government of India as a “centre of
excellence”, and affiliated to the Nehru Foundation for
Development, Ahmedabad. CEE has its presence felt in all the
states and Union Territories of India through a local network of
7 regional offices and 23 field offices across the country. The
GEF UNDP/SGP program started in India from the year 1996-1997. So far
it has in India supported 331 projects in various geographical
locations across the country and in all five thematic areas of
Climate Change, Conservation of Biodiversity, Land Degradation,
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) & International Waters.
Since its inception, GEF UNDP/SGP has confronted very real challenges in
working with communities to reconcile global environmental
priorities with local community needs - challenges that have
been met in different ways across the globe depending on
particular economic, cultural, political and environmental
conditions. In the process, GEF UNDP/SGP became "the people's
GEF".
How does GEF UNDP/SGP WORK ?
GEF UNDP/SGP is rooted in the belief that global environmental problems
can best be addressed if local people are involved and there are
direct community benefits and ownership. GEF UNDP/SGP is convinced that
with small amounts of funding, members of local communities can
undertake activities that will make a significant difference in
their lives and environments, with global benefits, in contrast
with top-down, expert-reliant development interventions.
Principles
Participation, democracy, flexibility, and transparency are
cornerstones of the GEF UNDP/SGP approach. The programme encourages and
supports the participation of communities, local people, NGOs, CBOs (community-based organizations), and other stakeholders in
all aspects of programme planning, design and implementation:
The formulation of country programme strategies:-
The development, presentation, and execution of project concept
papers and proposals;
Building partnerships to broaden the scope of the programme and
to communicate and replicate successful GEF UNDP/SGP initiatives;
Raising public awareness of global environmental issues and
changing public attitudes and practices;
Influencing government environmental policies and programmes;
and
Mobilizing in-kind and monetary resources to support project and
programme sustainability.
The flexible decentralized structure of GEF UNDP/SGP encourages maximum
country and community-level ownership and initiative:
Grants
Grants are made directly to community-based organizations (CBOs)
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in recognition of the
key role they play as a resource and constituency for
environment and development concerns. The maximum grant amount
per project is US$50,000, but averages around US$20,000. Grants
are channeled directly to CBOs and NGOs.
Country Programme
Strategies
Each participating country develops a country programme
strategy, which adapts the GEF UNDP/SGP global strategic framework to
specific country conditions. GEF UNDP/SGP country strategies take into
account existing national biodiversity and climate change
strategies and plans, as well as those relating to national
development and poverty eradication. They may put emphasis on
certain thematic areas and, particularly in large countries, are
encouraged to adopt geographic concentration to ensure synergy
and impact as well as to facilitate programme administration.
Country Program Manager
A locally recruited Country Program Manager (CPM) is appointed to carry
out day-to-day management of the programme and serve as
secretary to the NSC. An GEF UNDP/SGP office is established either in
UNDP or in a host NGO. The National Coordinator, working with
the NSC, reaches out to the NGO community and CBOs to inform
them of availability of grants, and receives and screens
proposals.
National Steering Committee
Once a country is accepted to host an GEF UNDP/SGP programme, it forms a
voluntary National Steering Committee (NSC), which is the
central element of GEF UNDP/SGP and provides the major substantive
contribution to and oversight of the programme. The NSC
typically comprises representatives from local NGOs, government,
academia, UNDP and occasionally co-funding donors, indigenous
peoples' organizations, the private sector and the media.
The NSC develops a country programme strategy, considers whether
proposals for grants are feasible and meet GEF UNDP/SGP criteria, and
what kind of technical support is needed for implementation. The
NSC is responsible for final approval of grants, helps undertake
site visits and review, advises on design of grant proposals,
ensures monitoring and evaluation, and champions GEF UNDP/SGP in national
fora.
Government membership on NSCs and collaboration with local
government agencies enable local communities to highlight areas
requiring policy change at the district, regional and national
levels and influence decision-making.
Monitoring and Evaluation
GEF UNDP/SGP's monitoring and evaluation system is intended to provide
stakeholders and partners with information about the status and
results of individual projects, the progress of country
programmes and the achievement of overall programme objectives.
GEF UNDP/SGP views monitoring and evaluation above all as a participatory
and forward-looking process that enables capacity building and
learning, maintains accountability, promotes sustainability, and
provides opportunities to identify and communicate lessons
learned from project and programme experiences. In the case of
GEF UNDP/SGP, monitoring and evaluation are required at three levels -
project, country and global.
Central Programme Management Team
A small headquarters staff provides global guidance on GEF focal
areas, reviews country programme strategies, receives and
analyses semi-annual and biennial reports and serves as liaison
with the GEF Secretariat and GEF Council, preparing annual
reports and work plans and requests for replenishment for
Council approval.
As executing agency, UNOPS has responsibility for administrative
and financial matters. While the programme has been
headquartered in New York since the beginning, GEF UNDP/SGP operations
are carried out in a decentralized manner.
At the heart of the GEF UNDP/SGP model, funding decisions are informed,
owned and implemented by local people.
About GEF
The GEF's mission is the protection of the global environment.
The Global Environment Facility forges international cooperation
and finances actions to address six critical threats to the
global environment: biodiversity loss, climate change,
degradation of international waters, ozone depletion, land
degradation, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
The underlying rationale for support of all GEF projects is that
some global environmental benefit is at stake, and the project
seeks to address the threat(s) or need(s) to ensure that the
global environmental benefit is conserved, or sustainably used
and managed. GEF funds are not substitutes for regular or
traditional sources of development funding. GEF financing will
always be additional to the funds required for national
development, and are solely for the purpose of obtaining global
environmental benefits.
The GEF is a financial mechanism structured as a trust fund that
operates in collaboration and partnership with the three
implementing agencies (UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank). Today
the GEF is the largest funder of projects to improve the global
environment. Since 1991, GEF has achieved a strong track record
with developing countries and countries with economies in
transition, providing $8.6 billion in grants and leveraging
$36.1 billion in co-financing for over 2,400 projects in more
than 165 countries. GEF funds are contributed by donor
countries. In 2002, 32 donor countries pledged $3 billion to
fund operations through 2006. At the Fourth GEF Assembly in
2006, an additional $3.13 billion was committed.
Funded by the GEF as a corporate programme, GEF UNDP/SGP is implemented
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of
the GEF partnership, and is executed by the United Nations
Office for Project Services (UNOPS). UNDP, the development arm
of the United Nations, was designated by the GEF as one of its
three Implementing Agencies. Specifically, the UNDP-GEF supports
the development of projects in the environmental focal areas of
biodiversity, climate change, international waters, and ozone
depletion. The new focal areas of persistent organic pollutants
and land degradation were approved at the GEF Assembly meetings
held from 16-18 October 2002. On behalf of the GEF partnership,
UNDP GEF also manages two corporate programmes, the Small Grants
Programme, and the Country Dialogue Workshops.
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