Understanding how GEF support performs in smaller, climate-vulnerable countries offers lessons for improving portfolio design and sustainability across the partnership.

Covering 1992–2012, the Eritrea country portfolio evaluation reviews 12 projects totaling about $22.7 million and applies a portfolio review with targeted field visits and interviews.

GEF support is relevant and generally effective at the project level, with enabling activities setting national plans, capacity improving in agencies and communities, and country ownership and cofinancing remaining solid. Integrated practice emerges across focal areas even when not labeled as such, community initiatives deliver local environmental gains through the Small Grants Programme, yet monitoring and evaluation remain weak. Postcompletion sustainability is mixed as financing, technical upkeep, and governance gaps limit continuity, and the wind energy pilot shows promise but needs follow-through to scale.

The report recommends strengthening monitoring and evaluation capacity, using the Small Grants Programme systematically for community delivery, sharpening project scope to match resources, improving interagency coordination, and planning financial and managerial sustainability from the outset.