Cofinancing is central to the GEF’s model, expanding the scale, effectiveness, and sustainability of its investments.
Since its establishment, GEF has disbursed over $24 billion while partners committed $138 billion in cofinancing, yet questions remain about how commitments are realized and tracked. This evaluation responds to a Council request to assess the effectiveness of GEF’s cofinancing approach, comparing it with other multilateral organizations and examining its influence on results, sustainability, and partnerships.
The GEF’s flexible approach to cofinancing results in high ratios but raises questions about the credibility of the reported cofinancing realized.
Evaluation overview
- Main challenges include incomplete realization of commitments, data gaps, and difficulty applying proportionality rules for management costs.
- Cofinancing proved most effective when governments provided matching resources, projects embedded revenue-generating activities, and Agencies adapted during implementation.
- The report recommends clarifying the definition of eligible cofinancing, revising proportionality requirements for management costs, and strengthening verification systems to ensure more complete and reliable data on realized contributions.
Methodology
The evaluation covers 118 completed projects across GEF-6 and GEF-7, drawing on portfolio review, benchmarking, surveys, and analysis of Agency reporting systems.
