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The 41st meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council was opened by Monique Barbut, CEO/Chairperson of the Facility, who underscored the need for efficiency, transparency and sharing of results. She emphasized the GEF’s new Work Program demonstrates real country ownership, with 90 % of all projects co-financed with resources outside of the GEF. She called attention to decisions to be taken on the Revised Strategy for Enhancing Engagement with the Private Sector and the GEF Policy on Agency Minimum Standards on Environmental and Social Safeguards.
The Council then elected Claudia Grayeb-Bayata (Mexico) as Co-Chair of the meeting, adopted the agenda for its three-day meeting and worked through its first full day of deliberations.
Melchiade Bukuru, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) reported that the GEF was invited to consider increasing its allocation to land degradation by the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD. Ravi Sharma, UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), highlighted a CBD assessment report on funding needs and workshops on biodiversity and finance organized in conjunction with the GEF. John Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is not a convention for which GEF is a financing mechanism, noted that if GEF were to become CITES’ financial mechanism it would enhance the Convention’s financial and programmatic coherence and the immediate threats to biodiversity loss as a result of illegal or unsustainable trade could be addressed.
Thomas Lovejoy, Chair, GEF Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), highlighted several recent initiatives on the quality at entry and impact of GEF projects, experimental design and climate resilience in GEF projects, and upcoming initiatives, such as the focus on protecting GEF investments.
During the first day, the GEF Council also considered agenda items on: the Progress Report from the Director of the GEF Evaluation Office; the Annual Thematic Evaluations Report - 2011 and Management Response; the Annual Monitoring Report.
GEF Council Members engaged in a lengthy discussion on the Revised Strategy for Enhancing Engagement with the Private Sector that ended with a significantly reformulated decision in response to several Council members' concerns. The GEF Council concluded the day by considering the agenda item on GEF Minimum Fiduciary Standards: Separation of Implementation and Execution Functions in GEF Partner Agencies.