The National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) program, launched in 2002, provided GEF recipient countries with resources to identify priority environmental capacity needs and prepare action plans to implement the Rio conventions.

Between 2006 and 2010, an evaluation reviewed 153 NCSA projects supported with $28.7 million in GEF funding. Methods included document review, an online survey, interviews, and visits to seven countries. The evaluation finds the NCSA initiative highly relevant to national sustainable development agendas, multilateral environmental agreements, and the GEF mandate, providing the first globally available assessment of national environmental capacity needs.

It also highlighted efficiency limitations, including the “one-size-fits-all” $200,000 grant approach, which proved less effective for larger countries.

While CB2 follow-up projects addressed institutional bottlenecks identified by NCSAs, many countries still lacked follow-through in GEF programming, limiting the continued use of NCSA outcomes. The evaluation further notes that although NCSAs generated useful methodologies and knowledge products, they were not consistently incorporated into GEF focal area programming or convention processes. The report recommends integrating NCSA lessons into the GEF-6 capacity development framework and expanding dissemination of NCSA knowledge products.