UNEP:Division of GEF Coordination

UNEP has a key role in the GEF, catalyzing the development of scientific and technical analysis and advancing environmental management in GEF-financed activities. UNEP provides guidance on relating the GEF-financed activities to global, regional and national environmental assessments, policy frameworks and plans, and to international environmental agreements.

As trustee for the environment, UNEP plays a distinctive and strategic role in the GEF by:

• cooperating with UNDP and the World Bank as a full partner; advancing greater responsiveness of the GEF to global environmental priorities through informed decision-making, by providing strategic inputs, and fostering complementarity between actions in each focal area, so that GEF activities are consistent with global and regional assessments, conventions and agreements, action plans and policy frameworks in the development context; providing necessary scientific and technical inputs at all levels so as to ensure the scientific and technical integrity of the GEF process, and contributing effectively to the formulation of GEF operational strategies; providing the perspective of global and regional frameworks and strategies which UNEP has helped to develop, so as to strengthen the GEF operations; executing projects of a strategic nature and importance that directly contribute to increased understanding, knowledge and awareness of critical aspects of global environmental issues addressed by the GEF, and contributing to the execution of projects of the partner agencies at their request; and, * assisting countries, when so requested by Governments, and relevant organizations, to assess their needs and develop project ideas.

In fulfilling its role, UNEP takes advantage of its regional presence, its links with the Secretariats of the relevant international conventions and legal instruments and its close contacts with other United Nations agencies and relevant bodies, including non-governmental organizations and scientific institutions and builds on its expertise and experience in sensing, assessing and catalyzing action in environmental matters

In May 1995, the GEF Council approved a document entitled \The GEF Project Cycle\".

This document elaborates the process through which projects move from initial concept through implementation to completion. Among other objectives, the GEF project cycle was developed to: ensure the quality and cost-effectiveness of GEF activities in addressing targeted global environmental issues

Read for moe information : http://dgef.unep.org/