Summary
On Tuesday, 25 October 2016, Naoko Ishii, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), opened the 51st meeting of the GEF Council with the launch of the publication ‘25 Years of the GEF’ outlining the GEF’s accomplishments over the past 25 years and the way forward. Carlos Raul Delgado (Mexico, Council Member for the constituency of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela) was elected Co-Chair for the 51st meeting of the GEF Council.
During their first substantive discussion of the 51st meeting, the GEF Council exchanged views on the Annual Portfolio Monitoring Report 2016. Council members welcomed the updated GEF Corporate Scorecard annexed to the report and made suggestions for its improvement by, inter alia: including indicators on monitoring and evaluation; developing indicators on the degree of innovation and risk involved across the portfolios; and developing sustainability indicators.
Council members also heard the report of Rosina Bierbaum, Chair, Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP). Bierbaum outlined STAP’s report titled ‘Governance Challenges, Gaps and Management Opportunities in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ),’ suggesting that the GEF consider emerging issues, including: enhancing knowledge; supporting high-impact demonstration projects; supporting areas-based planning and management tools; and building technical capacity in small island developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs).
Additional agenda items discussed on the first day of the Council’s 51st meeting included: update on the projected resource availability from the sixth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund (GEF-6); work program for the GEF Trust Fund; seventh replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund (GEF-7); and an update on the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT).
In the afternoon, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the GEF launched two reports: ‘Voices of Impact: Speaking for the Global Commons,’ and ‘Silent Roar: UNDP and GEF in the Snow Leopard Landscape.’
IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB+ Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web coverage from the GEF Council Consultation Meeting with CSOs, 51st GEF Council Meeting and 21st Meeting of the LDCF/SCCF Council. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has published a summary report in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Francis Dejon
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Opening of the Meeting
Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson, opened the 51st meeting of the GEF Council
Carlos Raul Delgado, GEF Council Member, Mexico, was elected as Co-Chair for the meeting
Carlos Raul Delgado, Co-Chair; Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson; and William Ehlers, GEF Council Secretary
Philipp Knill, Germany
Alix Thepot, France
Weifang Yang, China
Subhash Chandra Garg, India
Priscilla Achakpa, GEF-CSO
Network, RFP West Africa
Paul Ralison, Madagascar
Gustavo Fonseca, GEF Secratariat
View of the STAP presentation
Thomas Hammond, STAP Secretary, and Rosina Bierbaum, STAP Chair
Nuritdin Inamov, Russian Federation
Josceline Wheatley, UK
Javad Momeni, Iran
Herbert Acquay, GEF Secretariat
Bruce Kijiner, Marshall Islands
Jozef Buys, Belgium
Mario Gustavo Mottin, Brazil
L-R: Nana Janashia, Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), and
Anastasiya Zhdanovich,
Belarusian Environmental Movement
Praveen Prasad Desabatla, World Bank
Guri Sandberg, Norway
Kees Rade, the Netherlands
Rachna Ramsurn, Mauritius
Mikael Eriksson, Sweden
Stefan Marco Schwager, Switzerland
Claus Pram Astrup, GEF Secretariat
Chizuru Aoki, GEF Secretariat
L-R: Midori Paxton and Adriana Dinu, UNDP, in collaboration with the GEF, launched ‘Voices of Impact:
Speaking for the Global Commons’ and ‘Silent Roar: UNDP and GEF in the Snow Leopard Landscape’
during the 51st meeting of the GEF Council
‘Voices of Impact:
Speaking for the Global Commons,’ introduced during the GEF Council meeting
L-R: Yoko Watanabe, GEF Secretariat; Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson, with Adriana Dinu, Timothy Scott and
Midori Paxton, UNDP, presenting ‘Silent Roar: UNDP and GEF in the Snow Leopard Landscape’