 |
April 2008
|
 |
I. Monique Barbut Dear Colleague: Here in Washington, warm weather is nearly here and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. At the GEF, we have a busy and productive spring ahead: the first meeting of the Adaptation Fund Board, preparations for the upcoming Biodiversity COP in Bonn, the GEF Evaluation workshop in Egypt and, of course, the April Council meeting.
Innovating thinking and the formation of cooperative partnerships with industry and municipalities has helped the National Grasslands Biodiversity Programme in South Africa achieve early successes in mainstreaming biodiversity concerns into productive sectors. The project aims to remove barriers to mainstreaming by building institutional and policy-level capacity, correcting market failures and demonstrating how different production sector practices can be adapted to achieve biodiversity management.
Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Seas and Gulf of Thailand The UNEP-GEF project entitled Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand is a $34 million, 7-country project, addressing degradation from habitat loss, land-based pollution and over-exploitation of fisheries resources. Amongst its many innovations this project has made use of a new technology to enhance global awareness of the projects’ interventions.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are listed in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which seeks to control and, in time, eliminate their production, trade and use, and to ensure that their treatment as waste is carried out in an environmentally sound manner.
IV. News from the GEF Evaluation Office News on African Country Portfolio Evaluations The Evaluation Office undertook four Country Portfolio Evaluations (CPE’s) in Africa between September 2007 and March 2008 covering Benin, Cameroon, Madagascar and South Africa. The CPE’s respond to three questions: relevance of GEF support to countries’ sustainable development and environmental priorities as well as to the GEF’s mandate; efficiency of GEF implementation; and results from GEF support. These countries were selected to cover a range of country contexts, with target countries reflecting a mix of environmental allocations, geography and wealth.
V. Support available to GEF National Focal Points In GEF 4, several sources of support are available to GEF Focal Points to help them strengthen their country’s participation in the GEF. These include the following: GEF National Dialogues: The GEF National Dialogue Initiative continues to assist up to 12 countries per year in organizing and undertaking national multi-stakeholder dialogues on GEF and global environmental issues. The dialogues, designed to respond to specific country needs and challenges, have helped increase awareness of global environmental issues, strengthen linkages and partnerships among key environmental actors and achieve consensus on the way forward on priority topics.
VI. New Focal Points and Council Members
|
|
