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Forty-first Meeting of the Global Environment Facility Council

7-10 November 2011 | Washington, DC, United States of America

Highlights for Tuesday, 8 November 2011
GEF
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Biodiversity Policy & Practice
The 41st meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council was opened by Monique Barbut, CEO/Chairperson of the Facility, who underscored the need for efficiency, transparency and sharing of results. She emphasized the GEF’s new Work Program demonstrates real country ownership, with 90 % of all projects co-financed with resources outside of the GEF. She called attention to decisions to be taken on the Revised Strategy for Enhancing Engagement with the Private Sector and the GEF Policy on Agency Minimum Standards on Environmental and Social Safeguards.

The Council then elected Claudia Grayeb-Bayata (Mexico) as Co-Chair of the meeting, adopted the agenda for its three-day meeting and worked through its first full day of deliberations.

Melchiade Bukuru, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) reported that the GEF was invited to consider increasing its allocation to land degradation by the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD. Ravi Sharma, UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), highlighted a CBD assessment report on funding needs and workshops on biodiversity and finance organized in conjunction with the GEF. John Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is not a convention for which GEF is a financing mechanism, noted that if GEF were to become CITES’ financial mechanism it would enhance the Convention’s financial and programmatic coherence and the immediate threats to biodiversity loss as a result of illegal or unsustainable trade could be addressed.

Thomas Lovejoy, Chair, GEF Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), highlighted several recent initiatives on the quality at entry and impact of GEF projects, experimental design and climate resilience in GEF projects, and upcoming initiatives, such as the focus on protecting GEF investments.

During the first day, the GEF Council also considered agenda items on: the Progress Report from the Director of the GEF Evaluation Office; the Annual Thematic Evaluations Report - 2011 and Management Response; the Annual Monitoring Report.

GEF Council Members engaged in a lengthy discussion on the Revised Strategy for Enhancing Engagement with the Private Sector that ended with a significantly reformulated decision in response to several Council members' concerns. The GEF Council concluded the day by considering the agenda item on GEF Minimum Fiduciary Standards: Separation of Implementation and Execution Functions in GEF Partner Agencies.
Co-Chair Monique Barbut, Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO
Co-Chair Claudia Grayeb-Bayata, Mexico
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia
Frank Fass-Metz, Germany
Melchiade Bukuru, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
Ravi Sharma, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
John Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
Jozef Buys, Belgium
Anyaa Vohiri, Liberia
Elise Delaitre, France
Paula Caballero, Colombia
Gilbert Metcalf, US
Asa Andrae, Sweden
Reginald Hernaus, Netherlands
Hem Pande, India
Thomas E. Lovejoy, Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel
Thomas E. Lovejoy’s presentation
Ibrahima Sow, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Gustavo A.B. da Fonseca, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Christopher Whaley, United Kingdom
Ignacio Tourino Soto, African Development Bank (AFDB)
Faizal Parish, Civil Society Organizations
Robert van den Berg’s presentation
Robert van den Berg, Director, Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Dima Reda, Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council
Anna Birgitta Viggh’s presentation
Anna Birgitta Viggh, Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council
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Zaheer Fakir, South Africa
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Jinkang Wu, China

Around the venue
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L-R: Co-Chair Monique Barbut, Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO, and Jozef Buys, Belgium
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L-R: Laura Russo, Tanya Rosen, IISD, and John Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
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Daily web coverage (click on the following links to see our daily web pages)
Related Links
GEF resources
*Forty-first meeting of the GEF Council documents
*Forty-first meeting of the GEF Council provisional annotated agenda
*C.41 work program submitted for Council approval

IISD RS resources
*IISD RS coverage of the Fortieth Meeting of the GEF Council, 24-26 May 2011, Washington, DC, United States of America
*IISD RS coverage of the Fourth GEF Assembly, 24-28 May 2010, Punta del Este, Uruguay
*IISD RS coverage of the Third GEF Assembly, 29-30 August 2006, Cape Town, South Africa
*IISD RS coverage of the Second GEF Assembly, 16-18 October 2002, Beijing, China
*IISD RS coverage of the First GEF Assembly, 1-3 April 1998, New Delhi, India
*Biodiversity Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase of UN and Intergovernmental Activities Addressing International Biodiversity Policy
*Sustainable Development Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase of International Activities Preparing for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
*SIDS Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States
*Climate Change Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase of UN and Intergovernmental Activities Addressing Global Climate Change Policy
*Linkages Update - Bi-weekly international environment and sustainable development news
*African Regional Coverage
*Latin America and Caribbean Regional Coverage
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