Area of Activity

The Global Environment Facility is a partnership for international cooperation where 183 countries work together with international institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector, to address global environmental issues.

Since 1991, the GEF has provided $13.5 billion in grants and leveraged $65 billion in co-financing for 3,900 projects in more than 165 developing countries. For 23 years, developed and developing countries alike have provided these funds to support activities related tobiodiversity, climate change,international waters,land degradation, chemicals and waste and sustainable management of forests in the context of development projects and programmes.

The GEF also works on several cross-cutting issues and programs:

• Results & Learning
• Earth Fund and Public Private Partnerships
• Capacity Development
• Small Grants Programme
• Country Support Programme
• Gender Mainstreaming
• Small Island Developing States
• Integrated Programmes

Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP) the GEF has made more than 20,000 grants to civil society and community based organizations for a total of $1 billion.

Among the major results of these investments, the GEF has set up protected areas around the world equal roughly to the area of Brazil; reduced carbon emissions by 2.3 billion tonnes; eliminated the use of ozone depleting substances in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia; transformed the management of 33 major river basins and one-third of the world’s large marine ecosystems; slowed the advance of desertification in Africa by improving agricultural practices—and all this while contributing to better the livelihood and food security of millions of people.

The GEF serves as financial mechanism for the following conventions:

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Minamata Convention on Mercury

The GEF, although not linked formally to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (MP), supports implementation of the Protocol in countries with economies in transition, along with numerous other initiatives and documents.

Country eligibility for GEF financing is defined in the 9th paragraph of the GEF Instrument. Countries are eligible for GEF funding in a focal area if they meet eligibility criteria established by the relevant COP of that convention, if they are members of the conventions and are countries eligible to borrow from the World Bank (IBRD and/or IDA), and if they are eligible recipients of UNDP technical assistance through country programming.

The Republic of Serbia has ratified four of five conventions GEF provides funding mechanisms for:

1. Act on Confirmation of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with annexes, FRY Official Gazette – International Contracts, No 2/97
2. Act on Confirmation of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), FRY Official Gazette – International Contracts, No 11/01
3. Act on Confirmation of UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), RS Official Gazette 102/07
4. Act on Confirmation of Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), RS Official Gazette 42/09

Based on the above stated facts, the Republic of Serbia is eligible to use the GEF funds, in cooperation with the GEF agencies such as UNDP, for financing the projects in the areas of biodiversity, climate change (mitigation and adaptation measures) and land degradation.