UNDP GEF SGP Regional Workshop for Asia and Pacific
The UNDP GEF SGP Regional Workshop for Asia and Pacific was held in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India from the 8th to the 13th April 2006. Around 50 participants including National Coordinators of UNDP GEF SGP from all the 22 Asia Pacific Countries, officials from the UNDP Head Quarters, New York, officials from the UNDP CO, officials from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, officials from the UNOPS, Government of India and the Team from the National Host Institution for UNDP GEF SGP in India, Centre for Environment Education participated in the workshop.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) is implemented by UNDP in 90 countries globally, including the 22 countries in the Asia Pacific region. SGP became operational in India in September 1995 and works in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government and India (GoI).
The Asia Pacific Meet of the United Development Program (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) was inaugurated at the Hotel Trident Agra on the April 8, 2006 at 1000 a.m. by Dr. Maxine Olson, Resident representative, UNDP Country Office India. The other honored guests for the Inauguration Ceremony were, Mr. Sudhir Mital, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and GEF Operational Focal Point, Mr. Delfin Ganapin, Global Manager, SGP and Mr. Kartikeya Sarabhai, Director, Centre for Environment Education.
The workshop was dedicated to intense working group discussions on SGP’s efforts to build effective Country Programmes in the Asia Pacific region. Specific sessions were dedicated to strengthening of the Country Programme Strategies in the region, working within the GEF Resource Allocation Framework (RAF), Resource Mobilization at the country and project levels, Impact Orientation of projects and the Country Programme Strategy, Knowledge Management – regionally and globally and increasing outreach and Participation of indigenous people and marginalized groups. The delegates made individual presentations on global priorities and country specific situations on the above-mentioned subjects during the sessions. The presentations were followed by intense discussions and guidance by the Central Programme Management Team.
The 6-day workshop led to certain major decisions being taken on strengthening the individual Country Programmes and the outreach of Small Grants Programme in the Asia Pacific region. One of the major decisions that were reached upon in the workshop was to shift from communication to Knowledge Management initiatives. Under such an initiative the knowledge products need to be innovative, targeted and should have a feedback system and not only be for public relations. A shift to the Knowledge Management is required because SGP requires strong advocacy to show that small projects with the local communities can have global impact by sharing of lessons learned and by mainstreaming and replicating the lessons. In this context exchange programs can also be very useful in sharing information and experiences between neighboring countries and partners.
It was also decided that SGP should improve access of indigenous people and the marginalized. The empowerment objective of SGP should be strengthened by having the issues of gender and non-discrimination to be included in the Country Programme Strategy. Special efforts needs to be made and innovative approaches has to be devised to increase this outreach and at the same time projects need to also be culturally sensitive but still true to UN principles of non-discrimination. The goal of Small Grants Programme is to be the leading programme to support the indigenous people and marginalized communities and this can be achieved through building a critical mass of focused action.
In wake of the Resource Allocation Framework (RAF) and Graduation Policy of mature SGP Country Programmes strengthening resource mobilization and partnerships with different levels both at the project and the Country Programme level was recognized to be of outmost importance. Under RAF only 5% resources are allocated to the SGP, which will be shared with capacity building projects. In this context, GEF plans to bring in the ‘Graduation Policy’ for the mature countries by the end of 2006. Within the RAF the replenishment will be four years and all RAF allocation will be best spent within the replenishment time otherwise it may affect next replenishment. This would require improving the grant delivery and establish transparent, open, integrated, responsive and need based systems in SGP.
Guidance was provided on developing clear Country Program Strategies (CPS) defining impacts, human rights based approaches, gender mainstreaming, sustainability plans
and strengthening capacity building for SGP. The purpose of the Country Programme Strategy is to define the SGP Niche because SGP is only part of the overall national efforts. The CPS needs to be specific and focused (e.g. clustering – thematic, geographical), country driven, linked to MDGs, human rights and national priorities through documents like National Human Development Reports and relevant committees. It was decided to develop a vision strategy for the country over next three years and define the significant change that the SGP will bring in the development practices/ policy-advocacy/ environmental and livelihood benefits in the country while
working with other GEF implementing agencies like the WORLD BANK and UNEP.
An important point that emerged out of the discussions were that projects need to show clear impacts and can use biophysical and other indicators for this purpose, as well explore other simple ways to quantify/measure outputs. There should first be a baseline to enable monitoring. Clear indicators should be incorporated in all process of project development, review and evaluation and awareness needs to be generated amongst the communities involved through a participatory process of baseline development and monitoring.