GEF National Dialogue Initiative - About National Dialogue Initiative

Overview

The GEF National Dialogue Initiative aims to strengthen country ownership and involvement in GEF co-financed activities through a multi-stakeholder dialogue process. National Dialogues bring together key stakeholders representing a wide variety of national and local interests in sustainable development. The dialogues provide unique forums that facilitate the link between formal, professional knowledge and informal, local knowledge to address national GEF related concerns.

The Dialogue Initiative was developed to serve as one of the tools in response to the recommendations of the Second GEF Assembly, the Third Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund and the Second Overall Performance Study of the GEF concerning strengthened country involvement and ownership and capacity building for national focal points. It also builds upon lessons learned from the GEF Country Dialogue Workshops (CDW) Programme. The Dialogue Initiative is implemented through a collaborative process between the GEF national focal points, the GEF Secretariat and the Implementing Agencies. It is being implemented by UNDP based on strategic guidance provided by the GEF Secretariat.

Main Objectives

The main objectives of the GEF Dialogue Initiative are to assist Participating countries by:

Promoting in-depth understanding of the GEF's strategic directions, policies and procedures;
Strengthening country coordination and ownership in GEF operations and sharing lessons learned from project implementation; and
Achieving greater mainstreaming of GEF activities into national planning frameworks and coordination and synergies amongst the GEF focal areas and convention issues at the national level.


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Process

To achieve these objectives, national and sub-regional policy level consultations are organized as a collaborative process between the GEF National Focal Points, the GEF Secretariat and the GEF Implementing Agencies.

National Dialogues: The design and objectives of each multi-stakeholder country level dialogue under the GEF Dialogue Initiative are based on individual country circumstances and focus primarily on GEF policy-related issues. The GEF operational focal points take the lead in organizing the dialogues with guidance provided by the GEF Dialogue Initiative coordination unit based at UNDP New York and local GEF implementing agency offices. The consultations involve multiple stakeholders representing governments, GEF national focal points and Council Members, GEF/SGP National Coordinators and/or representatives from SGP National Steering Committees, non-governmental organizations, indigenous and local communities, implementing and executing agency country-based staff, bilateral and other donors working in the country and private sector representatives.

Some of the topics addressed during recent country level dialogues have included the identification of:

(a) the links between national environment and development priority areas and the GEF’s strategic priority areas for funding, (b) proposed integrated solutions to addressing such priorities, (c) developing national GEF strategies, including funding priority areas under the Resource Allocation Framework (RAF), (d) GEF coordination mechanisms including synergies among existing and proposed multi-and bi-laterally funded projects, (e) the potential role of the private sector, and (f) the potential opportunities available under the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) and/or lessons learned in countries where the SGP exists.
See Dialogue Recommendations

Sub-regional Consultations: The GEF Dialogue Initiative also contains a provision for sub-regional consultations. Eight such consultations were conducted April and August 2006 attended by GEF national Focal Points and some national NGOs. They served as a means to engage all countries in understanding the current strategic priorities and operational modalities of the GEF, particularly those related to the RAF. They also served as a vehicle to solicit focal points’ capacity building priority needs to be addressed through the new Country Support Program for Focal Points (CSP), and their views on the design and scope of future country level dialogues through the National Dialogue Initiative.