GEF-NGO Statement 
The GEF Council Meeting November, 10 – 12, 2009 - Agenda Item 13 Progress on GEF Replenishment
Washington, DC, November 10, 2009

The GEF NGO Network believes that a successful replenishment is critical for the future of GEF. From our perspective we believe this will depend on four key factors:

• Tripling the GEF5 replenishment relative to GEF-4. The GEF- NGO Network urges participants in the council and replenishment of the GEF to triple the scale of its contributions to GEF in order to secure global environmental benefits and contribute to fulfillment of the pressing needs of communities and governments in recipient countries. The lack of commitment by some major donors to a tripling of the GEF resources while still supporting stimulus packages for other sectors continues to perturb us. This especially in the context of preventing higher costs in the future by not addressing problems now - as laid out in the Interim Report on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) and the IPCC reports related to climate change finance.
   
• Endorsing new operational strategies and programming that closer identify and work with country needs. Allocation of sufficient resources to each country is key to effective planning and ownership.
   
• Effectively enhancing Civil Society participation in the planning and execution, is critical considering the role of civil society as a key partner in safeguarding the global environment.
   
• Broadening the list of agencies for improving GEF delivery mechanisms is key to increase efficiency and speed of GEF approaches by providing country beneficiary with the choice of partners to access GEF resources.

On the revised documents:

REVISED GEF-5 PROGRAMMING DOCUMENT (GEF/R.5/22) 
 
The NGO Network acknowledges the inclusion of references to civil society´s role in GEF programming in various sections of the sections of the document, but we still feel that in certain focal areas such as biodiversity and climate change, that linkage with civil society should be better articulated especially given the clear convention guidance on this matter. We feel that indicators related to level of civil society involvement in delivering the programme objectives could be an important tool to help address the problems of Civil society access as well as support the long term sustainability of actions. 

With relation to capacity building, we believe that specific provisions should be made to include capacity building for civil society at the country, regional and global level to enhance the ability of civil society to work as a partner with GEF.

On the issue of the proposed allocation to focal areas in Table 8 we wish to raise our concern on several issues:

1. We are concerned that in the scenarios of 50, 75 and 100% increase of replenishment that the Core fund allocation for the SGP Core fund has only been increased by 18%, 36% and 81% respectively. We are puzzled as to why civil society should receive a lower proportional increase than the overall increase. As stated earlier we believe that a minimum $200 million should be made under all replenishment options – which could help ensure more effective and robust implementation of the SGP including effective capacity building. 
    
2. The allocation to international waters should be increased to approximately 12% from approx 10% now considering that many of the IW programmes are moving to implementation from earlier planning phases as well as the current crisis affecting international waters.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FIFTH REPLENISHMENT OF THE GEF TRUST FUND (GEF/R.5/23)

The NGO Network welcomes the inclusion of paragraph 44 “cooperation with civil society organizations” as part of the new institutional arrangements in the Policy document. We are pleased to see the proposed action item related to developing concrete proposals to strengthen civil society engagement in GEF-5 to be led by the Secretariat in coordination with the NGO Network and Agencies to be presented to Council. With regard to the timetable - we prefer that this proposal should be presented for the May/June 2010 meetings, as part of the package of other major reforms so that civil society issues can be mainstreamed into all reform areas.

On programming of GEF resources

Regarding programming of GEF resources at the country level, it is our understanding that a more comprehensive proposal will be developed by the Secretariat for Council review. Following implementation, we suggest making available an annual report for each country detailing the project or programme selection process, the extent of civil society involvement, fund allocation and expected results.

We also propose that at the beginning of GEF-5 programming phase, countries should outline a process for consultation in order to incorporate CSO positions/inputs in the elaboration of development strategies. The shape and form of this consultation process should also be clearly defined from key national authorities.

We also believe that there needs to be a mechanism to facilitate Civil society input to national programming in those countries that do not prepare a Voluntary business plan.

On the broadening of agencies

The Network continues supporting the broadening of agencies, in concordance with article 28 of the Instrument. Since the creation of the GEF 17 years ago, global environment challenges have become increasingly more complex. The GEF’s delivering support to developing countries requires more expertise in countries that current Implementing Agencies cannot provide alone.

On access to GEF resources

The share and value of CSO executed MSP and FSP should be increased. To be in conformity with the level of CSO involvement in GEF-2 and GEF-3 operations, we continue to call for a minimum target of 15% of total GEF-should be dedicated to CSO activities

GEF NGO Network 11 November 2009  www.gefngo.org

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