The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is an independent financial organization that provides grants to developing countries for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. Since its establishment in 1991 as a trust fund, the GEF has allocated US $8.8 billion, supplemented by more than US $38.7 billion in cofinancing, for more than 2,400 projects in more than 165 developing countries. Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP), the GEF has also made more than 10,000 small grants available directly to nongovernmental and community organizations. Donors replenish the GEF on average every four (4) years and the GEF is currently in its fifth four-year phase.
The GEF also serves as the financial mechanism for the following conventions: climate change (UNFCCC), biodiversity (CBD), persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and desertification (UNCCD); additionally, although not linked formally to it, the GEF supports the implementation of the Montreal Protocol (MP) in countries with economies in transition.
The GEF Council is the main governing body of the GEF. It functions as an independent board of directors, with primary responsibility for developing, adopting, and evaluating GEF programs. It meets twice each year for three days and also conducts business by mail. All decisions are by consensus. Supporting the Council is a secretariat, headed by a Chief Executive Officer (Mrs Monique Barbut)
Since the formation of the GEF and during the period GEF 1 – 3 Antigua and Barbuda only received small amount of funds for small project called enabling activities. These are funds to do national reporting and data collection. Applying for GEF funding to implement national projects has been a difficult challenge, due to our small size and the administrative fees imposed by the agencies (known as Implementing Agencies (IAs)) through which GEF funds are channeled. In general, larger projects generated greater administrative fees. It therefore follows that the IAs are reluctant to implement projects from small countries. As a result, small island developing States (SIDS) received very little GEF funding. Despite these challenges, Antigua and Barbuda is the only OECS country (including Barbados) to receive a GEF 3 national project.
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