50th Meeting of the GEF Council and CSO Meetings (Washington DC, 2016)

50th Meeting of the GEFCouncil and CSO Meetings

Theme: ICCAs and Standards and Safeguards for Finance and Business
Meeting dates:

• 5 June 2016: Preparatory meeting for CSOs
• 6 June 2016: CSO Consultation with GEF Council
• 7-9 June 2016: 50th GEF Council Meeting

Location: Washington, DC, USA

Consortium activities:	Several Consortium members, including the Global Forest Coalition and an honorary member, participated as part of the GEF CSO-Network CSO-Network prepared statements on specific agenda items. Full text of all GEF CSO-Network statements can be downloaded from their summary report. For Consortium, most relevant include: Recommendations for strengthening monitoring of Agency compliance with GEF Policies on environmental and social safeguards, gender, and fiduciary standards (Agenda Item no. 6) Recommendation that GEF Work Program incorporate appropriate recognition of and support for land and territories governed by indigenous peoples and local communities, in line with self-determined priorities and plans (Agenda Item no. 17)
Key Policy Outcomes:	Council Decisions included: Provisional approval of GEF Trust Fund Work Program Agreement on need for periodic self and third-party assessment of Agency compliance, with reporting on self-assessment to take place each replenishment cycle; the Secretariat will further report in October 2016 Approved proposed arrangements for establishing Capacity-Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) under UNFCCC (Paris Agreement) Agreed to establish ad-hoc working group to develop an updated vision for the GEF-civil society relationship; will report back at the first 2017 Council meeting
More Information:	Agenda items particularly relevant to the ICCA Consortium Annotated Provisional Agenda Meeting documents IISD Reporting Services’ summary report GEF CSO-Network summary report
Contribution to overall strategy:	Under the draft strategy on “ICCAs & Standards & Safeguards for Finance & Business”, the above activities contributed to the objectives of: (1) recognition of ICCAs as ‘prime targets’ but also ‘safe spaces’ where companies respect customary / local rules and procedures; and (2) recognition of indigenous peoples’ and communities’ rights and environmental concerns in policies of financial institutions
Direct financial implications for the Consortium:	None – self-funded by Consortium members and volunteer contributions by Honorary member