Often neglected by donors and recipient countries alike as considered unproductive lands, drylands cover a significant portion (40 percent) of the Earth land surface and are home to over two billion people, many of whom are among the world poorest and most vulnerable populations.

The GEF Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) is introducing new evaluation guidelines that will redefine how program and project evaluations are conducted. Effective January 1, 2024, these comprehensive guidelines encompass GEF-funded programs, full-sized projects, and enabling activities.

In the realm of environmental evaluation, 20 years is a significant milestone. It marks not just the passage of time but a journey filled with lessons, successes, and innovations. In this post, we celebrate the remarkable story of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), an institution that has played a pivotal role in enhancing the world's environmental accountability, learning, and action.

Installing solar panels, biking to work, switching to sustainable agriculture, buying clothes second-hand instead of new -- what do all these have in common? For one, these are all measures that could help save money and mitigate climate change.

By Carlo Carugi, Senior Evaluation Officer, Global Environment Facility Independent Evaluation Office

In the 2021 Evaluation of GEF Engagement with Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), we put a spotlight on how the GEF has worked with MSMEs in the last 30 years. We looked at a portfolio of 158 completed projects where MSMEs could clearly be identified as being part of project activities. We also used two case studies to look in-depth at what has actually helped MSMEs adopt more environmentally sustainable practices and technologies, and what has not.

It was the early 2010s: excitement was growing for the idea of a new international convention to combat mercury emissions. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), a critical source of funding for many international conventions, was considering how to prepare the new convention’s eventual creation. The stakes were high—GEF needed to show that it was a capable financial mechanism for the future convention even though up until then, its chemicals programs were designed to tackle entirely different substances regulated by the Stockholm Convention.

My recent work as consultant to the UNEG Working Group on Integrating Environmental and Social Impact into Evaluations (ESI) has shown that UNEG member evaluation offices face challenges in adequately evaluating interventions that are not primarily focused on

When COVID-19 was discovered in Malaysia, it affected a GEF project supporting reduction in greenhouse emissions across building infrastructure in the health and hospitality sectors (UNIDO GEF ID:4878).

We live in a rapidly changing world although we don’t always notice it as our lives unfold in the midst of these changes. Only when you think back, even only a few years, to a specific time and you compare how life was then, do you notice how different it is now.