Summary
The second day of the 51st meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council began with a discussion on monitoring agency compliance with GEF policies on environmental and social safeguards, gender, and fiduciary standards. The Council deferred the final decision on the issue until Thursday.
During the morning, the Council also discussed the Semi-Annual Evaluation Report October 2016 and management response to the report. Council members considered two completed evaluation reports: ‘International Waters Focal Area Study’ and ‘Value for Money Analysis for the Land Degradation Projects of the GEF.’ Juha Uitto, Director, Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), outlined the IEO’s ongoing evaluations, including: ‘GEF Engagement with the Private Sector,’ ‘Chemicals and Waste Focal Area Study,’ and ‘GEF Role in Supporting Legal and Regulatory Reform in Countries,’ as well as work on recently started or upcoming evaluations.
At the beginning of their afternoon deliberations, the Council discussed relations with the conventions and other international institutions, and memoranda of understanding with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The Council heard presentations by the Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, and the Principal Coordinator of the Interim Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, as well as interventions from representatives of the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UNCCD, relating to GEF activities in support of their respective multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
The Council concluded the day with a discussion of recommendations from the Working Group on Public Involvement. The final decision on the issue was deferred until Thursday.
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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William Ehlers, GEF Council Secretary; Co-Chair Carlos Raul Delgado, Mexico; and Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson
L-R: Herbert Acquay and Roland Sundstrom, GEF Secretariat
Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, US
Samuel Germain, Germany
Claudia Mordini, Italy
Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, Indigenous Peoples Focal Point, Africa,
on behalf of the GEF-CSO Network
Josceline Wheatley, UK
Subhash Chandra Garg, India
Presentation of the ‘Semi-Annual Evaluation Report of the Independent Evaluation Office’
L-R: Geeta Batra and Juha Uitto, IEO
View of the IEO presentation on the ongoing Evaluation of Programmatic Approaches in the GEF
and the Integrated Approach Pilots
Nuritdin Inamov, Russian Federation
Aida Ghebre Selasie, Norway
Abdul Bakarr Salim, Sierra Leone
Cristina Kamia, Angola
Alix Thepot, France
Judith Gelbman, Canada
Jacob Duer, Principal Coordinator, Interim Secretariat of the
Minamata Convention on Mercury
Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
Jozef Buys, Belgium
Greg Filyk, Canada
Javad Momeni, Iran
L-R: Stefan Marco Schwager, Switzerland, and Carlos Rodríguez Brianza, Uruguay
Alejandro Kilpatrick, UNFCCC Secretariat
Amy Ann Fraenkel, CBD Secretariat
Melchiade Bukuru, UNCCD Secretariat
Mitsutoshi Kajikawa, Japan
Caryn McClelland, US
María Szephegyi, Vida Silvestre Uruguay, on behalf of the GEF-CSO Network
Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson