Speech
Statement by Ms. Monique Barbut
Chief Executive Officer and
Chairperson
Global Environment Facility
Third GEF Assembly
Cape Town, South Africa
August 29, 2006
Chief Executive Officer of the GEF:
Monique Barbut
Madam Deputy President, Excellencies, Distinguished
Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:
On behalf of the GEF, its Member
Countries, Council, Heads of Implementing and
Executing Agencies, and partners, welcome to the
Third GEF Assembly
Madam Deputy President, we are
honored to have your presence.
I would like to thank the Government
South Africa for graciously agreeing to host this
Assembly. This is the first time the Assembly
is being held in Africa.
We are truly grateful to the
Minister of Finance, His Excellency Trevor Manuel,
and the Minister of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism, His Excellency Marthinus van Schalkwyk
as well as His Excellency Ebrahim Rasool, Premier
of the Western Cape Province, and so many others,
including the people of South Africa who have
made us feel welcome in this great “Mother City”
Excellencies, Members of the
GEF Council, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and
Gentlemen, the Assembly is convening at a time
when the world’s environment is facing severe
threats, negatively impacting the lives and livelihoods
of millions of poor people.
On many environmental fronts
– species loss, climate change, loss of soil fertility,
deforestation and the potential for conflict over
shared water resources – we are fast reaching
a tipping point.
Last year’s Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment warned us in stark terms that human
activities are “putting such strain on the natural
functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s
ecosystems to sustain future generations can no
longer be taken for granted.”
All parts of the world, rich
and poor, are witnessing the vagaries of nature
– heat and cold, drought and floods, bountiful
harvests and withering crops, species loss on
land, air, and water.
Taking note, the United Nations
has named 2006 as the International Year of Deserts
and Desertification.
This campaign is focused on
bringing about change in dry areas that constitute
some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems and
are home to nearly 2 billion people.
Madam Deputy President, as I
see it, the overarching objective of this Assembly
must be to generate solutions to problems of environmental
degradation and poverty.
The GEF was created 15 years
ago, and in institutional terms, it has now matured
into a nearly universal entity with 176 member
countries. And we hope that number will increase
further.
Our portfolio has grown – we
now have over 1800 projects delivering global
environmental benefits in more than 150 countries.
Our investment of $6.2 billion is leveraging $20
billion in co-financing.
These projects touch the lives
and livelihoods of millions of people, and the
ecosystems on which they depend.
Our fledgling Small Grants Program
has grown in stature and reach – providing over
7,000 grants in 95 countries. These grants to
small NGOs and community-based organizations help
link local actions to national development priorities,
and ultimately to global environmental protection.
And I would be remiss if I did
not thank our 32 donor countries who yesterday
agreed to replenish the GEF for another four years
with a record sum of $3.13 billion.
Despite these successes, we
cannot be complacent.
The magnitude of environmental
problems are such that they can make or break
any nation’s quest for achieving sustainable development.
Projects in the six focal areas
lie at the heart of GEF’s environment-and-sustainable
development agenda, and we are achieving notable
successes.
In the biodiversity focal area,
GEF and its partners are working at the frontier,
fostering market-based approaches to conservation.
Our strategic approach focuses on the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity within protected
areas, and mainstreaming biodiversity in production
landscapes, seascapes and sectors.
On climate change, GEF’s overall
mission focuses on mitigation, working to develop
and transform energy markets so that countries
can move toward a less carbon-intensive growth
path. GEF support for adaptation focuses on projects
that build adaptive capacity and increase ecosystem
resilience – this is an area of high payoff, because
climatic fluctuations are expected to hit poor
countries the hardest.
Water security is a critical
concept on which depends the well-being of current
and future generations. GEF has advanced the international
waters’ agenda. Because people are at the front
and center of our development strategy, we are
fostering cooperation and ecosystem-based approaches
to management while working with member countries
to address transboundary concerns.
Land degradation is a serious,
global problem. We are disseminating best practices
for controlling and preventing deforestation and
desertification, while fostering policies that
remove barriers to sustainable land management.
Yesterday, we hosted a major forum on sustainable
land management to support the International Year
of Deserts and Desertification campaign.
On the ozone layer, in partnership
with the Montreal Protocol, dramatic success has
been achieved with 90 percent reduction of ozone-depleting
substances in Russia and transition economies.
But the challenge of the chemicals agenda remains.
As we know, persistent organic pollutants pose
insidious, long-term threats to humans, animals
and plants. Looking ahead, a key effort is to
demonstrate feasible, innovative technologies
and practices for reducing these deadly chemicals.
Partnerships are at the core
of our modus operandi. To facilitate private sector
engagement, we are deploying a variety of financial
instruments -- grants, contingent grants, subsidized
loans, and guarantees – to deal with incremental
risk. Again, this is an area where we can and
must do more, including piloting wider ranging
and more sophisticated economic instruments to
better value natural resources. A more substantive
and expansive engagement of the private sector
on global environmental issues is needed.
We are strengthening our partnerships
with civil society, anchored in a knowledge-sharing
approach that distills 15 years of experience
in environmental projects.
The GEF’s work heeds the warning
by the United Nations that environmental degradation
is hampering ongoing efforts by developing nations
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Four years ago, we met in that
great cradle of civilization, China. And now we
meet in Africa, not far from the Rift Valley,
where humans began their long march to modernity.
The GEF is committed to protecting
the global environment.
I am confident that with the
support of our stakeholders, the GEF can fulfill
its mission of helping developing countries achieve
sustainable development.
Thank you for your time and
attention.
