30 January 2015: The Global Environment Facility (GEF)/UN Development Programme (UNDP) Small Grants Programme (SGP) has provided direct funding to numerous community groups and organizations worldwide to develop skills, build capacity and undertake projects with the potential to produce global environmental benefits.

In the past 20 years, over US$460 million has been distributed in small grants directly to community-based projects, generating almost US$600 million in co-financing for projects in over 120 countries world-wide.

Stressing the many innovative local solutions to environmental problems the programme has provided, Pilar Barrera Rey, GEF Operations Officer, said that many of its projects have been awarded environmental prizes attesting to their effectiveness. She highlighted the SGP as a valuable component of the GEF’s overall strategy, describing local communities as not only some of the most affected by environmental problems, but also as part of the solution.

Nick Remple, Global Technical Advisor, UNDP-GEF SGP, indicated that by managing the financing themselves, the beneficiaries have greater control over decision making and “can exercise the agency in a way which builds ownership, responsibility and ultimately sustainability.”

Under the SGP, over 20,000 small grants have been awarded directly to civil society and community-based organizations, with examples including: bamboo bike production in Ghana; restoration of land degraded by open landfills in Minsk, Belarus; promoting organic farming in Zimbabwe to reduce the use of agro-chemicals; and rehabilitating endangered fish species in Albania. Also, by taking a more “programmatic” approach to lending, the programs in Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico aim to address wider ranging environmental issues, including: ecotourism development in Costa Rica; sustainable use of biodiversity in Brazil; and landscape planning and resilience in Ecuador. [Publication: Every Little’s Big Impact on Environment]