Introduction to Demonstration Site Selection

Peter Scheren, Project Manager (former) of the Western Indian Ocean Land-based Sources of Pollution project (UNEP-GEF), provides an introduction to the selection of demonstration sites in GEF IW project implementation.

GEF IW project experiences on demonstration activities can be found here.

Demonstration (or pilot) projects are often a key practical element of GEF IW projects and are seen as a means to validate an approach to encourage replication or up-scaling or to reinforce acceptance of approaches recommended in a SAP.

Demonstration activities are a frequently used tool to test approaches (technical and policy related) that are linked with capacity building both within countries and in transboundary situations. These are important tools to assist with ‘proof of concept’ for ideas and to strengthen national/regional confidence in approaches that are being promoted by the project. Although many demonstration activities are presented in the ProDoc it is important that these are reviewed and agreed with the PSC together with ensuring that these activities have detailed workplans and budgets (essentially mini ProDocs) and are supported with detailed logframes that are consistent with the expectations of the main project.

The IW community has significant experience on developing pilots, selection process, administration (financial and technical), capturing experiences, etc. These are collected in Part 4 of this manual as a guide to project management teams on previous approaches.