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Country Achievements from
Recent National Dialogues
In 2007 so far, six countries have hosted GEF National Dialogues: Honduras, Iran, Mozambique, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Turkmenistan. The GEF National Focal Points organized the dialogues with support of the UNDP Country Offices, and with the strategic guidance of the National Dialogue Initiative.
While dialogues were developed in line with global program objectives, each dialogue was designed to respond to specific national objectives and priorities and tailored to each country's needs. Countries have used recent dialogues for the following purposes:
• Informing national stakeholders about global environmental issues and GEF's strategic directions, policies, and procedures
• Taking stock of GEF portfolios and activities in a country
• Further developing national GEF strategies and defining priorities for funding
• Strengthening intersectoral cooperation on environmental issues
• Enhancing interagency collaboration and partnerships
• Strengthening national GEF coordination mechanisms and processes
Some notable GEF National Dialogue achievements arising from these meetings include the following:
• Honduras: Their National Dialogue and the planning activities provided a first time convening of Convention Focal Points together with the GEF Focal Point to identify national priorities for GEF co-funding in GEF 4. It also gathered development donors alongside GEF agencies to discuss environment and development strategies, culminating in a commitment to establish national consultative coordination mechanisms to set priorities for GEF co-funding and incorporate lessons learned.
• Iran: Their National Dialogue facilitated stakeholder discussions on national priorities for GEF 4 and resulted in refining and refocusing priorities through continued focal area consultations. The roles of local communities and NGOs in environmental management were recognized in the context of the Small Grant Programme (SGP), along with making a commitment to scale up local results and strengthen the role of local communities in collaboration with government.
• Mozambique: Their National Dialogue resulted in identifying new priority issues for GEF co-funding assistance within the biodiversity, climate change, and international waters focal areas.
• Seychelles: Their National Dialogue identified and further defined national priorities for GEF co-funding assistance in GEF 4, including key areas and modalities for action. It resulted in developing an initial strategy for the start-up of the national SGP.
• Mauritius: Their National Dialogue identified ways to leverage financial resources from international and regional agencies and the private sector to diversify sources of co-financing for GEF projects that had been limited to government funding. It also identified options for partnering with complementary national environmental funds.
• Turkmenistan: Their National Dialogue integrated GEF themes and concerns within their overall National Sustainable Development planning process which was being initiated during the same time. As such their GEF Dialogue was held back-to-back with their National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) planning meeting and the Environment and Security Subregional Workshop, and resulted in identifying concrete national priorities for GEF co-funding assistance in biodiversity and climate change linked to their NSDS.
National Dialogues for Indonesia, India, Colombia, Cambodia, Burkina Faso, and Pakistan are scheduled to take place during the end of 2007 and early 2008.
For more detailed information on the above GEF National Dialogue, including agendas, lists of participants, summary reports, and photos, please visit the GEF Country Support Programme (CSP) Knowledge Facility for Focal Points at:
http://www.gefcountrysupport.org/report_detail.cfm?projectId=206.
This article was prepared by Stephen Gold, Global Manager, GEF Dialogue Initiative and Country Support Programme (stephen.gold@undp.org).
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