Evaluations

Ensuring an adequate supply of clean water for people, livelihoods and ecosystems while also protecting against water-related shocks and stresses are the key components that make up water security. In the GEF, water security is woven into several focal areas, from transboundary water resource management in international waters to protecting against drought in land degradation and limiting water pollution in chemicals and waste.

Projects that use community-based approaches (CBA) at the GEF are those that are designed to use a people-centered approach for management of natural resources, characterized by participation of local communities and resource users (including indigenous people, women, youth, and marginalized or vulnerable people) in decision-making activities.

The strategic country cluster evaluation (SCCE) of least developed countries (LDCs) covers all 47 LDCs, located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Selection of the LDCs for an SCCE is based on the countries' common LDC status and related economic, social and environmental challenges. LDCs are low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development.

The African Biomes Strategic Country Cluster Evaluation (SCCE) covers GEF activities in 23 countries situated in two Sub-Saharan African biomes: the Sahel and the Sudan-Guinea Savanna. Selection of these two biomes is based on the countries' comparable land-based environmental challenges.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has a long history of supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). As the GEF has shifted into more integrated approaches, it has also increasingly engaged MSMEs not only as a source of innovation and as beneficiaries, but also as a partner in scaling up the generation of global environmental benefits through a value-chain approach.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has a long history of investing in interventions to solve the environmental and health issues associated with the artisanal small-scale gold mining industry (ASGM). The signing of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2013 prompted an increased investment by GEF into the removal of mercury from human processes, including ASGM.

The Seventh Comprehensive Evaluation of the GEF (OPS7) provides solid evaluative evidence to inform the negotiations for eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) will take place in an international context that is very difficult to predict and navigate. The global environment continues on a downward trend, and more than a decade after the financial crisis of 2008.

Scaling up is not new to the GEF and in the last decade, all GEF focal areas have been shifting from site-level pilot projects towards projects or programs implemented at higher scales. Based on a review of focal area strategies and interviews with the GEF partnership, the GEF has gradually shifted its focus from pilots to scaled-up interventions over the last 25 years.

The GEF Annual Performance Report (APR) prepared by the GEF Independent Evaluation Office (GEF IEO) provides an overview of the performance of GEF activities and processes, key factors that may affect performance, and the quality of Monitoring and Evaluations systems (M&E).

The GEF introduced the integrated approach in 2014, building on its long and evolving history on integration. This major reform aimed to address the main drivers of global environmental degradation and deliver multiple benefits across multilateral environmental agreements using the GEF programmatic approach modality.