As the third in a series of annual reviews, the 2006 APR tracks whether GEF projects are meeting outcome, sustainability, and cofinancing benchmarks established in earlier reports.

The Third Annual Performance Report (APR) 2006 assesses how well GEF projects are achieving outcomes, sustaining results, mobilizing cofinancing, and meeting monitoring and supervision standards. It reviews 66 completed projects submitted in fiscal year 2006, representing $255 million in GEF funding, supplemented by 182 terminal evaluations submitted since 2001 for cofinancing analysis and a stratified sample of 49 projects to assess supervision quality.

This evaluation finds that completed projects remain on track to meet the GEF-4 target of 75 percent satisfactory outcomes, with 84 percent rated moderately satisfactory or above and 65 percent rated moderately likely or above in sustainability. Cofinancing commitments were largely realized, averaging $2.40 per $1.00 of GEF funding, though variation among projects remained high. Average completion delays were 13 months, though their effect on performance appeared limited. The assessment also finds UNEP supervision unsatisfactory in two-thirds of sampled cases, portfolio monitoring tending to overrate performance, and UNDP and UNEP not adequately involving social and institutional expertise.

The report recommends strengthening supervision systems, ensuring resources for oversight, and improving terminal evaluations to better capture sustainability, cofinancing, and M&E quality.