The GEF Small Grants Programme http://sgp.undp.org (SGP) is a corporate programme of the GEF, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the GEF partnership, and is executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

Since its inception in 1992, the GEF SGP has occupied a strategic niche within the GEF system, particularly in supporting “thinking globally, acting locally” community-based interventions that comply with the criteria, objectives and priorities of the GEF. Notably, the GEF SGP

• supports outreach and awareness raising activities on relevant environmental issues and initiatives;
• builds the capacity and capability of NGOs, CBOs and local communities in addressing and overcoming their environmental burdens; and
• provides a mechanism for demonstrating and disseminating consultative, participatory and community-led success stories, lessons learned and experiences enriched towards fostering “sustainable livelihoods”,

which, in turn, is manifested through the realization of manifold benefits, particularly of

• environmental conservation,
• poverty mitigation, and
• community empowerment.

Further, the GEF SGP projects also strive to complement the GEF Medium-Sized Projects (MSPs) and Full-Sized Projects (FSPs) in a country, implemented by their respective Governments, thereby providing a window of opportunity also for the meaningful involvement of NGOs, CBOs and local communities in the GEF MSPs and FSPs. In fact, the GEF SGP is rooted in the belief that most environmental problems can be adequately resolved if and only local communities are realistically associated in the design, operation and monitoring of their appropriate remedial strategies, action plans and expected deliverables.

Additionally, the GEF SGP funds have also catalytically enabled local communities and indigenous peoples to undertake endeavours, with the assistance of suitably qualified NGOs and CBOs, that do make significant differences in the welfare and well-being of their own lives, as well as of their environments, natural resources and ecosystems.

Notably, the GEF SGP is formulated to meet the following primary objectives in a country:

• Demonstrating that community-level interventions and technologies could contribute towards reducing the spectrum of threats confronting the global environment, if they are subsequently replicated and mainstreamed in time and in space;
• Drawing lessons from community-level experiences, and supporting the dissemination of successful community-level innovations among NGOs, CBOs, communities at large, governments, development aid agencies, UNDP-GEF, GEF and other stakeholders working on a much larger scale, and at a much higher level; and
• Developing and nurturing partnerships and networks among the various sectors of stakeholders, in order to support and strengthen the capacity and capability of local communities, CBOs and NGOs partake in all efforts and attempts formulated at tackling and overcoming environmental burdens, while spurring the tangible benefits of sustainable livelihood and sustainable development.

Operationally, although the GEF SGP has since graduated into becoming an integral component of the GEF Corporate Business Plan, besides it being overseen by the GEF SGP Central Programme Management Team (CPMT) and UNOPS in New York, its actual implementation continues to still remain decentralised, country-specific and community-driven, as determined by the prevailing local and national conditions and circumstances. Hence, the implementation of the GEF SGP in a country is facilitated by a national Secretariat and a national Country Programme Strategy (CPS), under the auspices of a National Steering Committee (NSC), via SGP funded projects and grantees from civil society NGOs, CBOs and local communities in the country.

Based on the Global GEF SGP Database, as at June 2007, the GEF SGP is operational in some 101 developing countries worldwide, via its Country Programmes or Sub-Regional Programmes.