From tackling climate change to reducing poverty, fostering economic growth and developing our societies – all aspects of development are intertwined. To achieve our development objectives, we need to break out of narrow areas of focus and work across disciplines to ensure our ideas are shared and our efforts are united.
The UNEP-Global Environment Facility partnership unites the world’s leading environmental authority with the largest public funder of projects and programmes that benefit the global environment. With a focus on the three Rio Conventions – the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – we work together to develop countries’ capacity in a way that recognises the overlapping obligations of the Conventions, enabling them to implement and mainstream these requirements in an integrated way.
By connecting stakeholders with our global network of partners and sharing the best in data, information and science-based solutions, together we are building the capacity of countries to meet global environmental objectives and ensuring the environment is a key consideration in decision-making in all efforts to achieve sustainable development.
Where we work
Together with the Global Environment Facility, we have developed and implemented projects in over 50 countries, building the capacity of some of the world’s least-developed nations to contribute to the global fight to defeat climate change and preserve our environment.
The Global Environment Facility has invested over $32 million in UNEP-led Cross-cutting Capacity Development initiatives to date, ranging from small-scale enabling activities to full-size regional and international projects. UNEP is currently leading seven Global Environment Facility-supported Capacity Development projects, spanning 20 countries worldwide.
The work of the UNEP-GEF partnership is guided by the GEF objectives, which aim to support capacity development by:
Integrating global environmental needs into management information systems and monitoring
Strengthening consultative and management structures and mechanisms Integrating Multilateral Environmental Agreements into national policy, and legislative and regulatory frameworks
Piloting innovative economic and financial tools for convention implementation
Updating National Capacity Self-Assessments
