Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Capacity building and financial resources

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral funding mechanism dedicated to providing financing for global environmental benefits. The GEF serves as the financial mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. In this capacity, the GEF functions under the guidance of the Conventions. The GEF is also a financial mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and provides support for the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, for activities concerning chemicals management as they relate to the GEF focal areas, and for activities related to international waters.

Under the biodiversity portfolio, the GEF funds capacity-building activities for the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB), based on the guidance from the Conference of the Parties. In 1997, following the decision of the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the GEF financed a pilot biosafety enabling activity project which assisted 18 countries to establish national biosafety frameworks. After the adoption of the Biosafety Protocol in January 2000, the GEF developed an Initial Strategy for Assisting Countries to Prepare for the Entry into Force of the Cartagena Protocol. Under the initial strategy, 120 countries were assisted to develop their national biosafety frameworks (NBFs) and 12 countries have been assisted to implement their NBFs. In addition, 139 countries are being supported in building the capacity for their effective participation in the Biosafety Clearing House (BCH). Since the CPB entry into force on September 2003, the GEF has supported countries with urgent needs to move forward in implementing their NBFs through some individual country projects and 2 regional projects. Currently, the GEF is developing a new "GEF Strategy for Financing Biosafety Activities".