Set against worsening global environmental trends, the Fifth Overall Performance Study (OPS5), covering GEF activities through 2013, evaluates how well GEF is achieving its objectives and whether GEF’s strategies and operations are fit to deliver higher impact.

Using portfolio analysis, country studies, and thematic substudies, OPS5 reviews performance across relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and impact. It finds that global environmental trends continue to decline, and GEF faces increased obligations such as support for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, while overall funding is unlikely to expand. GEF projects remain effective: more than 80 percent of outcomes exceed international benchmarks.

The intervention model is catalytic and aligned with multilateral environmental agreements, but the business model is increasingly inefficient, with project cycles and results-based management systems slowing delivery.

Multifocal area projects are expanding but face monitoring burdens that constrain their potential.

The report recommends that the GEF Council and partners mobilize resources and make strategic choices that reflect the urgency of environmental decline, overhaul the business model to reduce delays and transaction costs, and strengthen the intervention model to speed broader adoption, partnerships, and knowledge sharing.