Every year, Earth Day gives us a chance to pause and think about how we’re taking care of the systems that support us—our land, water, air, and the people and communities connected to them. In 2025, that reflection feels especially important. We’re seeing more pressure on natural resources, and at the same time, we’re being asked to solve more problems, often with fewer resources.

That’s where evaluation comes in—not…

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) plays a crucial role in leveraging cofinancing to enhance project impact, sustainability, and partnerships. Since its inception, GEF has disbursed $24 billion in grants and secured an impressive $138 billion in cofinancing commitments, highlighting its commitment to maximizing resources for…

"Community-based doesn't inherently mean community-led." This insight emerged as a recurring theme during our interviews with stakeholders in the GEF Partnership while evaluating community-based approaches. During early interviews, we encountered a significant challenge: the term 'community-based approaches' was interpreted differently by various individuals. To address this issue and determine the extent to which GEF projects genuinely empowered communities, we dug deeper.

Our first step was to define 'community-based approaches.' We chose a comprehensive definition to…

Earth Day serves all of us as an annual reminder of the critical need for action to protect and preserve our environment. And you are here because you clearly care about the future! And you are here because you clearly believe that evaluation has a role to play. Yes, as evaluators, we have the privilege and the duty to assess the effectiveness of various environmental initiatives, to review progress against the various goals that countries and organizations commit to, and to provide insights that can drive meaningful change.

co-author Michael Woolcock

Acknowledgements: This blog is based on the evaluation “Learning from Challenges in GEF Projects”. The evaluation was prepared by a GEF IEO team led by Kseniya Temnenko (Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO), under the guidance of Geeta Batra (Director, GEF IEO). The core evaluation team members were José Miguel López Beltrán (Evaluation Analyst, GEF IEO…