EPA to Host First Ever GEF Intl Meeting
By: Laymah Kollie
Monrovia-February 1,2024: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) will on Tuesday, February 13-16, 2023, commence a four-day Global Environment Facility (GEF) Constituency Workshop (ECW) in Liberia.
The workshop is intended to discuss current issues relating to climate change, biodiversity, desertification, international waters, chemicals, and other related environmental issues affecting Liberia.
The event is expected to bring together GEF agencies and focal points, convention focal points, and CSOs as well as other key stakeholders to discuss and review policies and procedures and share lessons and experiences from the development and implantation of GEF projects and their integration within national policy.
According to EPA Executive Director, Prof. Wilson K. Tarpeh, the ECW was a competitive process conducted amongst countries, to which Liberia won to host the event.
“The ECW was competitive among the constituency member states in 2022 and by March 2023, it was announced that Liberia and Ivory Coast were the two selected countries amongst which one should be chosen. Fortunately, Liberia was selected to host the ECW.”
The Environmental Protection Agency boss in a press conference Thursday stated that the workshop will also be followed by a national dialogue.
“The Constituency Workshop will be followed by a two-day National Dialogue from February 19-20, 2023 at Cape Hotel in Monrovia”
According to him, the dialogue will bring together 70 participants from 38 institutions from Government Line Ministries, Agencies and Commissions, Non-Governmental Institutions, Civil society Organizations, community members, Academic and Research institutions, the Private Sector as well as partners and donors.
The Dialogue agenda is designed to raise awareness of national stakeholders about the GEF to build capacity for effective implementation of Liberia’s GEF portfolio, as well as strengthen the GEF national coordination mechanism through the exchange of ideas and best practices.
It will also identify and elaborate national priorities under the GEF thematic areas for the remaining period and discuss preliminary areas of interest for GEF.
The Dialogue is expected to attract and bring together over 70 participants from sectorial line ministries, agencies, academic institutions, international and national non-governmental environmental organizations, representatives of civil society groups, and superintendents from the 15 political subdivisions.
At the end of the Dialogue, participants will identify projects for possible funding under the GEF System of Transparent Allocation of Resources (Star) GEF8 which is 8.63 million.
The distribution is as follows: Climate Change 2 million, Land Degradation 2 million, and Biodiversity 4.63 million.
He added “the GEF activities are normally a component of National Dialogues insofar as the GEF Partnership is one of the sources of financing and support available to the country”
Liberia GEF Partners include the World Bank, African Development Bank, UNDP, FAO, and Conservation International. This year’s national dialogue objective is to discuss the 8.63 million dollars’ allocation
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) as the financial mechanism for the Paris Agreement, is the international organization that provides funding to support environmental projects worldwide. The GEF National Dialogue therefore is a platform for stakeholders in a country to come together and discuss environmental issues, including national objectives, policies, strategies, and the means to achieve them.
