| Overview : The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in developing countries with grants to enable them to tackle global environmental challenges while addressing local sustainable development needs. In Operation Phase 6, grant-making focuses on the strategic initiatives of; community landscape conservation, climate smart innovative agro-ecology, low carbon energy access co-benefits and local to global chemical management coalitions. With these environment-centered “grant projects” the Programme also seeks to generate sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty in the world’s neediest countries and regions. With the notion “community action with global impact”, the Programme recognizes that grassroots communities are better placed to tackle global environmental problems and come up with lasting solutions. Launched in 1992 following the Rio summit, the GEF Small Grants Programme has presence in 127 countries all over the world. The Programme is a GEF corporate programme, implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNDP; executed by United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Since inception, Botswana chapter has succeeded in providing both financial and technical support for more than 183 projects.
The Programme has focused on establishing an efficient, decentralized and transparent system for providing small grant support to community-level initiatives. Through such, a wide range of innovative models have been piloted that demonstrate that community-level activities provide global benefits within the GEF focal areas being; biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, international waters, sustainable forest management and persistent organic pollutants and chemicals. |
