Overview : The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides civil society and community-based organizations (CSOs/CBOs) in developing countries with grants to enable them to tackle global environmental challenges[1] while addressing local sustainable development needs. SGP is a GEF corporate programme, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS). SGP South Africa started financing projects in 2001 and since then, it has succeeded in funding close to 120 grant projects. A key element of SGP’s implementation in the 7th Operational Phase of the GEF (OP7) covering period 2019 – 2022, will be the development of landscape/seascape approaches within countries to better focus grant-making and promote strategic programming and clustering of small grant projects, with the aim to achieve greater impact and lead to synergies and opportunities for scaling up. In South Africa, the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve (VBR) located in Limpopo Province was selected as SGP’s priority landscape for the 6th Operational Phase of the GEF (OP6) and became the focus of the OP6 Strategy. The OP6 Strategy for the VBR was not fully implemented due to unforeseen circumstances. Six (6) community projects were funded during OP6. In OP7, SGP South Africa intends to continue its support to the VBR to consolidate its grant-making initiatives in the landscape. The objective of this assignment is to engage a consultant to facilitate a workshop in Vhembe as well as review and update the VBR Strategy. The updating of the strategy must also take cognizance of the OP7 global priorities as well as with provincial and district priorities. |