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World Bank’s Global Environmental Facility (GEF)

Alexander Richter 5 Mar 2009

An overview over the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) of the World Bank, which runs the GeoFund for geothermal development.

It was covered before in combination with World Bank’s support of geothermal development in Armenia over its GeoFund, but this summary of the Global Environmental Facility I found interesting to post.

“The GEF unites 178 countries in partnership with international institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives. Today the GEF is the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment. An independent financial organization, the GEF provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. Since 1991, GEF has achieved a strong track record with developing countries and countries with economies in transition, providing US$8.3 billion in grants and leveraging US$33.7 billion in co-financing for over 2,200 projects in over 165 countries. Through its Small Grants Program (SGP), the GEF has also made more than 7,000 small grants, up to US$50,000 each, directly to nongovernmental organizations and community organizations.

The World Bank Group is one of GEF’s implementing agencies and supports countries in preparing GEF co-financed projects and supervises their implementation. It plays the primary role in ensuring the development and management of investment projects.

The Bank draws upon its investment experience in eligible countries to promote investment opportunities and to mobilize private sector, bilateral, multilateral, and other government and non-government sector resources that are consistent with GEF objectives and national sustainable development strategies. Since 1991, the World Bank Group has committed US$1.52 billion in GEF resources and US$2.25 billion in Bank group co-financing for GEF projects in 80 countries. In addition to GEF and Bank resources, it has mobilized additional co-financing of US$5.48 billion from other donors.

CONTACT:

Vigen Sargsyan, The World Bank Group, Yerevan Tel: +374 1 524 884 e-mail: vsargsyan@worldbank.org Michael Jones, The World Bank Group, Washington Tel: +1 202 473 2588 e-mail: Mjones2@worldbank.org

Source: Tradingmarkets