GEF Small Grants Program | GEF
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The GEF Small Grants Programme - Results Report 2023-2024
November 22, 2024
GEF Small Grants Program
About the Program
What We Do
Featured Content
SGP 2.0 in GEF-8
Progress on Key Features of SGP 2.0
SGP in Numbers
About the Program
Since 1992, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program (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).
Visit the UNDP-GEF SGP site
What We Do
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 SGP core global program funds grants for 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 many communities within critical landscapes or seascapes.
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The GEF Small Grants Programme - Results Report 2023-2024
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SGP 2.0 in the Eighth Replenishment
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.
Progress on Key Features of SGP 2.0
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.
SGP in Numbers
Since its inception in 1992, GEF SGP has supported close to 30,000 grants, administering $1.54 billion of GEF funds in financing to local communities and civil society organizations across 136 countries.  In addition, close to $1.01 billion has been mobilized to co-finance these community-based SGP projects.
Through GEF-8 programming, SGP projects are expected to generate the following Global Environmental Benefits and socio-economic outcomes:
55,000 hectares of terrestrial protected areas created or under improved management
151,800 hectares of marine protected areas created or under improved management
405,500 hectares of land and ecosystems under restoration
6,849,000 hectares of landscapes under improved practices
300,100 hectares of marine habitat under improved practices
876,200 beneficiaries, of whom half are women
During the reporting year 2024-2025, SGP grants contributed to the improved management of 10 million hectares of protected areas, brought 50,753 hectares of land under improved management practices, and 18,823 households achieved energy access co-benefits (ecosystem effects, income, health and others).
Updated April 2026