Ammon News - Under the patronage of Minister of Environment Nabil Masarweh, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday launched the Seventh Operational Phase (OP7) of the Small Grants Programme (SGP), funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and a new grant for CBOs in Jordan, according to a UNDP statement.

The SGP Seventh Operational Phase will focus on the national environmental priorities in different landscape and seascape taking in consideration the livelihood element in each theme including biodiversity, climate change, forests management, chemicals and land degradation.

This call for grants proposals will address the current environmental challenges, including relevant actions in response to COVID-19 pandemic and aiming for a greener recovery.

SGP continues as a systemic instrument to empower local communities for sustainable development. The call will also identify innovative and inclusive ideas from civil society and community-based groups, with a targeted focus on youth, women, and persons with disabilities, and effectively address current environmental challenges, the statement said.

As a response to the pandemic, it was vital to draw great attention on the impact of the pandemic on local communities and the need to strengthen their short-term coping mechanisms as well as their long-term socioecological resilience.

Grassroots actions and initiatives will build on community self-determination principles, including local food security, nurture healthy reciprocal relationships with the land, plants and animals, as well as with other producer organisations and networks.

“The small grants programme which is funded by global environment fund and implemented by UNDP is considered ‘a success story’ in Jordan since 1992, because it aims to provide financial and technical support to the local community members, community-based organisations (CBOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs),” Masarweh said.

“The meeting on Tuesday comes while we suffer the impacts of the pandemic not only on the health but also on the environment and economy,which needs effectively address the current environment challenges to take relevant actions towards green recovery in addition to strengthen the local communities to build back better” he added.

“The crisis we face shows clearly why the relationship between people and the planet must be at the heart of building forward better from the pandemic, just as it is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals. The support provided through the joint programme on Reduction and Elimination of POPS was a major contribution by the Ministry of Environment to the health sector during COVID crisis through providing Autoclaves to address the issue of medical waste,”said Sara Ferrer Olivella, UNDP Resident Representative.

SGP provides grants of up to $50,000 perproject for projects in biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation and sustainable forest management, said the statement.

UNDP has been implementing the Global Environment Facility Small Programme GEF/SGP in Jordan since 1993, and funded a total number of 257 projects over six cycles.

The total funding exceeded $7,788,000 and a total cost-sharing of $13,578,671.36 in cash and in kind, to support projects in 197 CBOs.

Olivella highlighted the fact that GEF/SGP complements other support programmes led by UNDP’s Environment and Climate Change team in partnership with the Ministry of Environment that focus on upstream policy support, international commitments tracking and reporting as well as capacity development among others.