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The Regional workshop for Africa took place in Accra, Ghana on September 19-23, 2011.
The workshops, organized every four years (at the beginning of each operational phase), aim to present program objectives, changes in operations, and to share knowledge and experience.
Main points discussed and conclusions
The workshop was opened by the GEF Operational Focal Point of Ghana, Dr. R. Babanawo, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, who highlighted the successes of the GEF SGP in Ghana since 1993. He expressed great satisfaction for the results achieved by the Ghana Small Grants Country Program. The opening speech of the global manager of the SGP, Mr.Ganapin, underscored the importance of continuing to implement this programme that have achieved significant and visible results in benefit of local communities and civil society organizations and he also expressed gratitude to the GEF for providing the funds.
37 National Coordinators (NCs) from Africa and four staff members from Central Program Management Team (CPMT) and GEF Secretariat staff attended to the workshop.
During the event, several presentations/discussions were made on the following issues:
- GEF SGP Country program presentations, results achieved and challenges for GEF-5
- GEF’s recently approved visibility policy and tools and ways for implementation
- GEF SGP Strategic priorities, targets and work plan
- GEF-5 strategic directions and implications for SGP
- GEF SGP priorities and results targets
- GEF SGP communication and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) strategy and means for implementation
- Results based management, knowledge generation and outreach
- Cost effectiveness, resources mobilization and sustainability
- Co-financing issues and partnerships
Among the recent changes in the programming of GEF Fifth operational phase (GEF-5), presented and discussed with NCs and CPMT, the following were the most critical:
- Project objectives that are directly related to focal and multifocal area objectives and relevant 36 indicators that have been introduced to monitor implementation progress.
- GEF SGP operational guidelines revamped to reflect country ownership, duties and responsibilities of the different stakeholders including the Terms of reference for NCs, and new requirements for country strategies.
- Unified project template, reporting and monitoring guidelines, project proposal review criteria, new country allocations from core resources and requirements for STAR allocations, visibility of the GEF investments through joint projects and knowledge sharing through the GEF SGP and relevant events.
Participants agreed to share the regular project implementation/progress reports with the relevant institutions and specifically with the Operational Focal Points (OFPs), Convention Focal Points, National Environmental Authorities and other interested parties at country-level.
Country strategies will be also shared for comments and input with OFPs and Convention Focal Points and all of them have to be involved in a consultation process before the strategies are finalized. The strategies will need to be posted on a country program web site after a National Steering Committee (NSC) has approved them;
Another topic of the event has been the GEF SGP knowledge management and M&E project requirements. It was made clear that all financed projects will need to be visited at least twice during their implementation cycle and regular progress reports have to be shared with the relevant partners and NSC members. The final results of the GEF SGP will be presented in all of the countries to NSC members, OFPs, convention focal points and civil society organizations through relevant events and local media. As agreed, country programs will continue to contribute towards the global program and the GEF website with the results achieved on a weekly basis. The country programs that have already significantly contributed were praised, whilst others were asked to improve their practice. Country program operations, similar to global programs, have to be made available to the public and constantly updated.
Finally it was discussed the involvement of NCs in the GEF Expanded Constituency Workshop. Presenting the results achieved by the program as part of the GEF’s investments in relevant regions was indicated as one of the main contributions that they can make during the GEF events.