GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY'S

SMALL GRANTS PROGRAMME

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a global partnership among 181 countries, international institutions, NGOs, and the private sector that aims to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives.

The GEF was established in 1991 and serves as an independent financial mechanism to assist countries in fulfilling their obligations under the following Conventions they have signed and ratified: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) was launched in 1992 following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The programme is funded by GEF as a corporate programme and implemented by the UNDP on behalf of the GEF partnership, and is executed by the UNOPS.

SGP aims to deliver global environmental benefits in the GEF focal areas of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, protection of international waters, prevention of land degradation, and elimination of persistent organic pollutants through community-based approaches.

The GEF SGP is highly decentralized and implemented in democratic, transparent and country-driven manner facilitated by the National Coordinator (NC). The GEF SGP grants are awarded based on decisions made by the voluntary National Steering Committee (NSC) guided by Country Programme Strategy paper developed on the basis of national environment and development priorities. The NSC composed of national government representatives, UNDP Country Office and civil society members representing NGOs, CBOs, academia, science and private sector, with a majority of them coming from non-governmental sector.

Currently there are 126 participating countries in GEF SGP in five world regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Arab States, Europe/CIS and Latin America/Caribbean.
________________________________________

In Armenia the GEF SGP officially started in November 2008 with appointment of the GEF SGP National Coordinator. In May 2009 the SGP country programme Strategy and Operational Frameworks were developed and adopted. For the current operational phase (2015-2018) the country programme addresses the following GEF thematic areas:

•    Conservation and sustainable use of biological resources;
•    Combating land degradation;
•    Mitigation of climate change;
•    Protection of international waters;
•    Phase out of POPs and other harmful chemicals.

The SGP Armenia accepts applications from registered national NGOs without foreign founders regularly throughout the year. Maximum size of the grant cannot exceed US$50,000 equivalent. The GEF SGP does not provide core funding of a project, i.e. – any grant provided by the Programme should be additional, incremental in nature. It is a commitment on the part of SGP to the GEF Council to ensure 1:1 co-funding ratio, evenly divided between cash and in-kind (work, use of own machinery, materials etc.).

During the project development stage, the applicant may seek consultancy of GEF SGP Armenia team and the National Steering Committee, which will provide any necessary information support for development of competitive and high quality application.

The project applications shall be fully completed and accompanied by a cover letter addressed to the GEF SGP National Coordinator in Armenia. Applications can be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address of the National Coordinator ([email protected]), or delivered in a hard copy to the UN House Security Desk (14, P. Adamyan Str.,) to the attention of the GEF SGP National Coordinator.