Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel

STAP is an independent advisory body of the GEF.  The Panel consists of seven members and a Chairperson with expertise in the main focal areas of the GEF. Panel members work on a part time basis for the GEF, typically on loan from their home institutions.

STAP’s mandate is to:

• Provide objective, strategic scientific and technical advice on GEF policies, operational strategies, programs and on projects and programmatic approaches.
• Interact in a complementary manner with other relevant scientific and technical bodies, particularly with the subsidiary bodies of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
• Provide scientific and technical advice on priorities for GEF funding, for focal areas in which the GEF is not operating as a convention’s financial mechanism.
• Provide expert scientific advice to inter-agency task forces and bodies handling other GEF processes, when such advice is requested.

The STAP Chair reports to every GEF Council meeting, briefing Council members on the Panel’s work and emerging scientific and technical issues. Advice to Council can include review and/or co- authorship of GEF Policy papers, where there are significant scientific or technical issues.