Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme
> Since 1997, UNDP has assisted the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in implementing the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program (SGP) in India.
> SGP projects are implemented through the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) and other NGO partners and stakeholders that have a presence in various parts of the world.
What is the GEF-Program for limited grants?
> It was introduced with 33 participating countries in 1992 and has grown to currently provide assistance to 125 countries.
> Offers financial and technical assistance to communities and civil society organisations with a ultimate goal of achieving global environmental benefits through community projects and acts.
> The SGP believes that initiatives led by the community and civil society will generate environmental benefits, while fostering healthy livelihoods, gender equality and empowerment of civil society.
> The programme is explicitly designed to organise bottom-up change by empowering local civil society groups, including women and indigenous peoples, and disadvantaged and marginalised communities.
> It is currently being introduced on behalf of the GEF Collaboration by UNDP.
SGP's main achievements in India
> For over 25 years, SGP has been operational and is being introduced across India.
> SGP has been working extensively in India in the fields of conservation of biodiversity, climate change and land degradation.
> 110,000 hectares of land in the Western Ghats, Himalayan Front and Arid and Semi-Arid regions are brought under sustainable land and resource management by sustainable initiatives such as organic farming and community-managed enterprises.
> 85,000 MTs of CO2 emissions have been reduced by a variety of renewable energy and energy-saving technologies, such as saving cookers, solar driers and briquetting systems, recycling systems for plastic waste, micro-hydro and biomass.
> Promotion among small farm holders of sustainable income generation activities.
Global Environment Facility:
> On the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Global Environment Facility was formed to help solve the most pressing environmental concerns facing our world.
> The GEF is an international collaboration that discusses global environmental concerns between 183 nations, international organisations, civil society organisations and the private sector.
> The GEF serves as the financial platform for five conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity ( CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Contaminants (POPs), the United Nations Convention to Fight Desertification (UNCCD) and the Mercury Convention of Minamata.
> The GEF supports the application of the Protocol in countries with economies in transition, although it is not officially related to the Montreal Protocol.
> India is a part of a GEF constituency made up of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.