New approach to benefit the islands

Asterio Takesy
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is being cloaked in new tapa for the Pacific region.

Named GEF PAS—the Global Environment Facility Pacific Alliance for Sustainability—it promises to contribute to resolving the disproportionate allocation of the GEF Fund to the Pacific compared to other Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) of the world.

The new innovative approach, by assisting increased Pacific countries’ access to GEF funds, will help us not only improve our national and regional environment but also positively contribute towards global environmental benefits.

Our Pacific Islands Countries have been given only small bites of the GEF pie. This international funding mechanism has poured $6.2 billion around the world since 1991. We, in the Pacific, were allocated $84 million for projects in 14 different countries during the same period. This is despite the fact that the Pacific is one of the most environmentally vulnerable regions of the world.

The GEF-PAS, thus, is a forward thinking measure to address the challenges the Pacific faces with accessing GEF resources.

Since 1991, 90% of the GEF resources granted to the Pacific region funded enabling activities.

The remaining 10% went towards the few projects with concrete contributions to the global environment. Many of our countries now say it is time we move on to the next stage and next level of engagement with the GEF.

New Zealand and Australia have recognised the difficulty Pacific Islands Countries face.

With their assistance, SPREP has created the new position of ‘Global Environmental Facility—Support Adviser’. The role of this office is to assist Pacific countries improve their access to GEF funding.

Pacific islander Joe Stanley, an experienced economist and knowledgeable on the GEF, is the adviser based in SPREP in Apia, Samoa.

The GEF-PAS is virtually the GEF chief executive officer and chairperson of the initiative. It has been designed to help overcome the many difficulties Pacific nations eligible for GEF support faced in the past.

It is a pilot and pragmatic approach with flexibility to cater to absorptive capacity of the small islands countries of our region.

While it is proposed to have regional coordination, the GEF-PAS is firmly premised on the principles of country-ownership and country-driven.

It will be the Pacific Islands countries themselves that will agree on the design and institutional framework for the GEF-PAS.

This includes the various national and regional projects that will come under this umbrella programme.
GEF-PAS, the 4th cycle of GEF funding (GEF-4), will see $100 million spent in the Pacific. In having GEF commit to this funding, the Pacific Islands will find it easier to budget their projects towards a ceiling level, and in turn there will be concrete results from better use of limited resources.

Having a set amount will also help us towards sourcing co-financing in our environmental projects.

These funds are also locked so that they can spill over into the next GEF cycle.

With this new approach, increased equity in sourcing GEF resources by Pacific partners involved in the GEF-PAS will be enhanced.

National, sub-regional and regional coordination of matters relating to GEF are expected to improve.
GEF-4 resources allocated to the region will be locked in for their benefit beyond the GEF-4 replenishment cycle period itself.

And countries of the region will have started an institutional approach and process that should put them in good stead for future GEF replenishments such as GEF-5.

This month a regional workshop convened by the GEF Secretariat will be held in Apia, Samoa before the Annual SPREP meeting.

During this time the Pacific Islands Countries eligible for assistance under GEF funding facilities will come together to discuss the GEF-PAS framework based on national priorities.

The GEF secretariat has made significant gestures by adapting its programming procedures to suit our unique geographical, political and social needs in the Pacific.

Now it is our turn, within our regional partnership of Pacific Islands Countries, to agree on that framework.
It is up to us to make this critical move for the environment of our countries, our region, and our globe.