The Bermejo River basin project is the first international waters project primarily addressing land degradation. It is consistent with the Operational Strategy as described under the Integrated Land, Water, Multiple Focal Area Operational Program, and it represents the first Strategic Action Program (SAP) formulation project as recommended under the new Operational Strategy. The Black Sea project represents a twelve month bridging or transition project. This project is planned to complete the strategic work begun under the pilot phase GEF project and to ensure consistency with the GEF Operational Strategy.
The Bulgaria energy efficiency project focuses on the municipal sector and is consistent with the Operational Strategy as described under the operational program on removing barriers to energy efficiency. Besides capacity building and institutional strengthening , innovative demonstration projects to conserve energy in buildings, street lighting and district heating are emphasized.
The Madagascar biodiversity project is a joint submission by the Bank and UNDP and will implement the project based on their comparative advantage. The project systematically covers the full range of GEF strategic ecosystems (arid and semi-arid, forest, mountain, coastal and freshwater) in one of the world's highest priority biodiversity countries and high endemism. The project is consistent with the Operational Strategy as described under the forest operational program and has elements relevant to the coastal/marine/freshwater, arid and semi-arid, and mountain ecosystems.
While including the Madagascar project in the work program, the implementing agencies were required to address the following conditions in preparing the final document for CEO endorsement:
(a) Monitoring and evaluation and the associated performance indicators for GEF components will be clearly identified in the project document.
(b) The document will clearly identify the root causes and link them to activities, outputs, risks and assumptions.
(c) The budget of the different activities will be clarified, justified and adjusted accordingly.
(d) Regarding absorptive capacity, the Bank indicated that the project size may be reduced to about $160 million; it is expected that there will be a corresponding reduction in GEF support.