Advice

This brief, based on the STAP Information Note Fostering Cooperation and Managing Conflict in GEF Transboundary Water Projects, highlights why cooperation over shared waters is critical for achieving Global Environmental Benefits and preventing ecological decline.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how we address global environmental challenges. This STAP Information Note explores AI’s potential to accelerate the delivery of Global Environmental Benefits across all GEF focal areas: biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste, while highlighting critical environmental, social, and governance risks. It explores opportunities for leveraging AI in project design, monitoring, evaluation, and knowledge management, and presents examples of AI use across the GEF partnership and networks.

This brief summarizes key principles of effective monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), illustrated through four case studies: three from GEF programs, FOLUR, the Global Wildlife Program (GWP), and the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program, and one from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Conservation and Markets Initiative (CMI).

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) recognizes that empowering Indigenous Peoples is essential to enhancing the performance, equity, and impact of GEF-funded projects. This commitment has been reaffirmed in recent GEF Council and Assembly discussions.

Human-driven changes are transforming ecosystems at scales and speeds that challenge traditional conservation practices. This STAP Information Note examines what it means to protect biodiversity and sustain ecosystem services in the Anthropocene and outlines three priority actions for the GEF.

The GEF increasingly recognizes that durable environmental outcomes depend on social resilience and the ability of communities to organize and cooperate. This STAP information note synthesizes evidence from the behavioral and social sciences to show that social resilience and collective action are prerequisites for achieving transformational change. It identifies seven institutional and psychological foundations that enable communities to withstand shocks, adapt, and steward natural resources over time (i.e.

This STAP report on “strengthening GEF support for Indigenous Peoples” provides recommendations to the GEF on enhancing the effectiveness of its support for Indigenous Peoples. The report synthesizes insights from: existing scientific and technical knowledge, STAP consultation with Indigenous Peoples, and a review of 20 GEF projects that impact or benefit Indigenous Peoples, to develop the recommendations.

This report summarizes STAP’s virtual consultations with members of the GEF Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG) and the Global Steering Committee of the GEF Inclusive Conservation Initiative-1 on enhancing GEF support for Indigenous Peoples. Key recommendations from participants are outlined in Box 1. These consultations provided a valuable input to the STAP report on Strengthening GEF support for Indigenous Peoples.

The STAP information note on “strengthening source-to-sea approaches in the GEF” provides an overview of the S2S concept, highlighting the important role the GEF has played in advancing the approach, barriers to effective implementation, and presenting advice on how to enhance the adoption and scale up.

Developed in collaboration with the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the GEF, this note highlights best practices and approaches on monitoring, evaluation and learning. These experiences are showcased through four case examples: the Conservation Markets Initiative, led by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the GEF's Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration; the GEF's Global Wildlife Program; and, the Snow Leopard Recovery Program, led by the Snow Leopard Trust.

STAP presentation focusing on Theory of Change and Risk in GEF projects and programs. Photo: Freepix

Between March and June 2024, STAP undertook an extensive consultation process culminating in its initial thoughts and advice for the GEF-9 replenishment period.

With climate change intensifying, drought is emerging as a critical global challenge. It leads to ecosystem disturbances, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and water scarcity, threatening agricultural systems and food security, undermining livelihoods, and driving migration and conflicts. The GEF addresses drought in the land degradation focal area, including through drought-smart land management and drought mitigation in drylands.

In February 2024, the GEF Council adopted a GEF Risk Appetite that described the level of risk the GEF is prepared to take in its ambition to achieve global environmental benefits. The instructions to assess risk are: i) describe the nature of the risk to project outcomes; ii) identify relevant mitigating measures; and, iii) assign a rating to the level of residual risk.

The GEF has a long history of using community-based approaches (CBAs) to achieve environmental outcomes across its diverse focal areas and special programs. CBA projects have been shown to deliver positive environmental outcomes, as well as socioeconomic co-benefits, including increased food security, better access to water and sanitation, enhanced educational attainment, and income increases. However, CBAs are not meant to be a universal remedy and may not be suited in some contexts.