NEGOTIATIONS
FOCUS
PROCESS
KEY STEPS
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Global Environment Facility
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Introduction
The relationship between the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council was agreed in a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) contained in  decision 12/CP.2 and decision 12/CP.3. As outlined in the MOU and pursuant to Article 11.1 of the
Convention, the COP provides regular guidance to the GEF, as an entity entrusted with the
Financial Mechanism of the Convention, on policies, programme priorities and eligibility criteria for
funding. The MOU also stipulated that the GEF reports annually to the COP. In order to meet the
requirement of the GEF's accountability to the COP, the annual report of the GEF will cover all
GEF-financed activities carried out in implementing the Convention, whether such activities are
carried out by the GEF Implementing Agencies, by the GEF Secretariat or by executing agencies
implementing GEF-financed projects.
The MOU further stipulated that the GEF report should include specific information on how it has
applied the guidance and decisions of the COP in its work related to the Convention. This report
should be of a substantive nature and incorporate the programme of GEF activities in the areas
covered by the Convention and an analysis of how the GEF, in its operations related to the
Convention, has implemented the policies, programme priorities and eligibility criteria established
by the COP. In particular, a synthesis of the different projects under implementation and a listing
of the projects approved by the Council in the climate change focal area as well as a financial
report with an indication of the financial resources required for those projects should be included.
The Council should also report on its monitoring and evaluation activities concerning projects in the
climate change focal area.
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Recent developments
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At COP 20, Parties welcomed with appreciation the sixth replenishment of the GEF and recognized the
general positive assessment of the performance of the GEF as concluded by the technical paper on the fifth review of the Financial Mechanism (1085 kB) .
Parties took note of the new GEF policy on co-financing and the concerns raised by some Parties in this
regard and encouraged the GEF to improve the communication of its co-financing policy so that it is
better understood, and appropriately applied by its accredited project agencies and implementing
agencies.
Moreover, Parties also encouraged the GEF to increase the overall transparency and openness of its
operations particularly with regard to the disclosure of information on the status of the
implementation of projects and programmes, the project-level accountability of its implementing
agencies and with respect to the timely disbursement of funds, as well as the advice provided to
countries on co-financing.
Guidance was also provided to the GEF on policy issues related to gender mainstreaming, efficiency of
GEF project cycle and the GEF pilot project for the accreditation of project agencies.
Finally, Parties endorsed the recommendations by the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) to analyze
past guidance provided to the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism in order to identify a set
of core guidance to serve as basis for the provision of future guidance and in order to reduce
redundancies, incoherence, and inconsistencies within the guidance provided to the operating entities.
The SCF will consider the cumulative amount of guidance to the GEF in this exercise.
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