GEF Small Grants Programme

Since 1992, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) has embodied the very essence of sustainable development by "thinking globally and acting locally" and serving, in the GEF partnership, a unique role supporting objectives of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in achieving GEF’s mission and mandate to deliver Global Environmental Benefits (GEBs).  

The overriding objective of SGP 2.0 is to “Catalyze and mobilize civil society actors and local actions needed to address major drivers of environmental degradation and help deliver multiple benefits across the GEF’s mandated thematic dimensions, while promoting sustainable development and improved livelihoods."

To achieve this, GEF SGP provides financial and technical support to local civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs), with a special focus on Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth, to develop and implement innovative local actions that address global environmental issues, while also improving livelihoods and reducing poverty.

SGP is currently implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and Conservation International (CI).

GEF SGP finances community-led initiatives to address global environmental issues through a decentralized, country-level delivery mechanism, usually supported by a country management team and a multistakeholder governance structure.  SGP is designed to mobilize bottom-up actions by empowering local civil society and community-based organizations, including women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and other marginalized and vulnerable populations.

The program funds grants of up to $75,000. SGP also provides a maximum of $150,000 for strategic projects. These larger projects allow for scaling up and replication of successful approaches, covering a large number of communities within critical landscapes or seascapes.

The eighth replenishment (GEF-8) reiterated the centrality of local innovation and civil society actions and coalitions in achieving GEBs and reconfirmed the important role that GEF SGP serves in support of civil society to all areas of sustainable development and in delivering GEBs. The replenishment concluded with $155 million allocated to the GEF SGP corporate program.

The GEF Council at its 63rd Meeting in December 2022 subsequently approved the GEF SPG 2.0 Implementation Arrangements for GEF-8, affirming the GEF’s ambitious reform agenda around expansion, innovation, diversification, and optimization of the program for GEF-8.

In line with SGP 2.0 Implementation Arrangements, The GEF Secretariat has led efforts towards implementing several of the key SGP 2.0 features:

• The development of The GEF Small Grants Programme 2.0 Operational Guidelines For GEF-8.
• The allocation of $135 million of SGP Core resources to be equally accessed by the 144 GEF-eligible countries. Access to these resources has been divided into two tranches, each capped at $67.5 million each. Tranche One was opened to UNDP only, and Tranche Two is open to all three SGP implementing agencies (UNDP, FAO, and CI). These resources are being complemented by STAR resources when requested by countries.
• The selection of FAO and CI as the two additional SGP implementing agencies. These agencies, along with UNDP, and with the support of the GEF Secretariat, have begun to collaborate closely and pool together their wide-ranging experience and technical knowhow to benefit SGP, supporting its continued expansion and evolution as a flagship GEF program, furthering the generation of positive, inclusive, innovative, and impactful global environmental benefits and livelihood outcomes.
• In the second semester of 2024, the GEF Secretariat will launch two new CSO Initiatives, building on the need to further support civil society actors and local environmental solutions to generate global environmental benefits. The two CSO Initiatives are: (i) a CSO Challenge Program, and (ii) a Microfinance Initiative, with $10 million allocated to each for GEF-8.

Since its inception in 1992, GEF SGP has supported over 28,000 grants, administering over $795 million of GEF funds in direct financing to local communities and CSOs across 136 countries. In addition, close to $955 million have been mobilized to co-finance these community-based SGP projects. 

Between 2017 and 2023, SGP grants contributed to the improved management of a total of 94 million hectares of protected areas, brought 740,413 hectares of land under improved management practices, and 289,699 households achieved energy access co-benefits (ecosystem effects, income, health and others).

Updated May 2024