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Conventions

The GEF provides funding to assist developing countries in meeting the objectives of international environmental conventions. The GEF serves as “financial mechanism” to five conventions. The GEF also supports various UN Agency Action Programmes like the Barbados Programme of Action, the GPA and the FAO Code of Conduct for Fisheries. However more often the GEF supports and help negotiate regional conventions like the Barcelona, Cartagena, Bucharest, and Danube Conventions.

The conventions, for which the GEF serve as financial mechanism, provide broad strategic guidance to the two governing bodies of the GEF: the GEF Council and the GEF Assembly. The GEF Council converts this broad guidance into operational criteria (guidelines) for GEF projects.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

The GEF is the designated institutional structure operating the financial mechanism of the Convention; it applies the guidance, including policy, strategy, program priorities, and eligibility criteria relating to access to and use of its resources from the Conference of the Parties.

At every ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the GEF provides a report on its biological diversity activities. The Executive Secretary regularly provides updates on the development of biodiversity issues, under the Convention to the GEF Council. The CBD relationship with the GEF is governed by Memorandum of Understanding between the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Council of the Global Environment Facility.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Under the Convention and the Protocol, developed country Parties (Annex II Parties) provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties for implementing the Convention. To facilitate this, the Convention designated the GEF as the financial mechanism,- subject to review every four years.

The financial mechanism is accountable to the COP, which decides on its climate change policies, program priorities, and eligibility criteria for funding, based on advice from the Subsidiary Body For Implementation.

In addition to providing guidance to the GEF, Parties have established three special funds: the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), under the Convention and managed by the GEF; and the Adaptation Fund (AF), under the Kyoto Protocol for which the GEF provides secretariat services.

The relationship between the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC and the GEF Council was agreed to in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) contained in decision 12/CP.2 and decision 12/CP.3.

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

Article 14 of the Stockholm Convention entrusts the GEF as its financial mechanism, following the principles laid down under Article 13 relative to the new and additional financial resources necessary to enable developing countries and countries with economies in transition to implement the Convention. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Conference of the Parties and the Council of the GEF gives effect to this relationship. Guidance to the financial mechanism has been provided by each subsequent COP meeting.

At every ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the GEF provides a report on its activities related to persistent organic pollutants.

The Stockholm Convention’s objectives include:

Eliminating the production and use of specific POPs;
Restricting the production and use of DDT only to disease vector control under WHO guidelines;
Restricting exports of POPs;
Developing strategies for identifying stockpiles of POPs and products containing POPs;
Taking measures to ensure that POPs wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner;
Developing strategies for identifying sites contaminated by POPs;
Ensuring that PCBs are managed in an environmentally sound manner and, by 2025, take action to remove PCBs from use;
Developing and implementing action plans to identify the sources and reduce releases of POPs byproducts; and
Identifying other chemicals with POPs characteristics and bringing them under the control of the Convention.

UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

On September 2003 the Conference of the Parties accepted the GEF as a financial mechanism of the Convention. The funds allocated by the GEF, support activities that address the issue of desertification and deforestation.

Report of the GEF on the measure taken to assist the preparation and implementation of action programs of affected African country parties under the UNCCD.

Minamata Convention on Mercury

The GEF has been charged with raising and disbursing grants for projects and programs to reduce and eliminate mercury pollution. GEF grants will support a wide range of activities under the Convention. These activities include inventories, implementation plans and investments in technology for reduction and elimination of mercury.

Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer

The GEF, although not linked formally to the MP, supports implementation of the Protocol in Countries with Economies in Transition. The GEF Secretariat has exchanged letters with the secretariats of the Montreal Protocol and the Multilateral Fund that show areas of cooperation and coordination.

The GEF Secretariat regularly participates to meeting of the Parties to the MP and other subsidiary bodies, and informs the parties of its work of relevance. The Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat provides regular updates on the development under the Protocol to the GEF Council and Assembly.

Multilateral Agreements on International Waters and Transboundary Water Systems

The GEF is also associated with many global and regional multilateral agreements that deal with international waters or transboundary water systems. As such, the GEF assist its recipient countries with international waters issues as they undertake work under the following conventions:

The Global Ship Ballast Water Treaty
The UN Law of the Sea Treaty
The MARPOL treaty for shipping (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships)
The UN Agreement on conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.

The GEF also supports various UN Agency Action Programs like the Barbados Programme of Action, the Global Programme of Action (GPA), Code of Conduct for Fisheries. However, more often the GEF supports and help negotiate regional conventions like the Barcelona, Cartagena, Bucharest, and Danube Conventions.

Conventions and Capacity Development

For successful implementation of international conventions for which GEF is serving as the financial mechanism, developing countries need capable individuals and effective institutions and organizations to work together in a well-functioning political, economic ,and social system – also called as “the enabling environment.”

Capacity development is a primarily endogenous and domestically driven process that depends on clearly answering questions involving the appropriate capacity for what and for whom. Capacity development in the GEF is designed to adhere fully to the concerns and priorities expressed by the international community (for example, the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness), an inherently political and complex process that cannot be rushed, with outcomes that cannot be expected to evolve in a controlled and linear fashion.