GEF Small Grant Program holds annual NSC meeting in Yap

Press Release

GEF Small Grants Programme FSM

National Steering Committee Meeting held in Colonia, Yap

April 13-14, 2015, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme-FSM (GEF SGP) convened its annual National Steering Committee (NSC) meeting in Colonia, Yap State at the Small Business Development Center conference room.  The meeting reaffirmed the Programme’s core commitment to continue to enhance its grant making support to all FSM NGOs, and Community-Based Organizations to access the available GEF resources within the country.  Through funding portfolios from the GEF CORE and STAR funds and additional SIDS-CBA funding provided by the Australian Aid partnership, the SGP FSM Programme committed to an ambitious goal to grant over $800,000 hundred thousand USD remaining in 2015 to provide support to community driven projects that aim to mitigate threats to the FSM environment and support community empowerment and sustainable livelihoods development.  

At this meeting the NSC reviewed a number of proposals from NGOs and CBOs and approved $100,000.00 in support of community projects.  The NSC also visited a number of grantee partners in their communities to learn firsthand work being carried out by the grantee partners. In addition, the Programme also hosted the first grantee peer learning exchange among the Yap grantees network held at the Marina Bar and Grill restaurant. 

The SGP Programme National Coordinator Mr. Patterson Shed and some NSC members later participated in the FSM GEF-6 portfolio prioritization exercise from 16-17 April also held in Yap. SGP FSM put forth its proposal for fund replenishment under the Country GEF-6 STAR fund allocation with adoption and strong support by the participants.  SGP FSM was also given the opportunity to highlight Programme progress to date through presentation at the workshop. 

The SGP is a funding modality of the GEF, approved by the GEF Council on a replenishment basis and implemented by UNDP on behalf of the GEF partnership.  The Programme seeks to provide maximum country, and community-level ownership.  As a global Programme, the SGP brings together over 125 country programmes across world regions.  Within the FSM, the Programme is hosted by the United Nations Joint Presence Initiative office (UN JPI) located on Kaselehlie Street in Pohnpei. SGP FSM is optimistic that the FSM government will continue to co-fund the Programme to be able to maintain same level of support to communities across the country.