Reports - United Nations Development Programme

COUNTRY EVALUATION: ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT RESULTS – TURKEY
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(iii) The GEF Small Grants Programme
The goal of the UNDP’s GEF Small Grants Programme
(GEF/SGP) is to improve the condition of the
environment by protecting biological diversity and
international waters. 59 It is based on the presumption
that global environmental problems can be solved by local
communities who, with small amounts of funding (up to
USD 50,000), can undertake activities that have a
significant impact on the condition of the environment
and their sustainable livelihood. Globally, the GEF/SGP
is operational in over 50 countries and is coordinated out
of UNDP New York Headquarters. In Turkey, GEF/
SGP has operated since 1993 out of the UNDP Turkey
Country Office on a decentralised basis, and is managed
by the GEF/SGP National Coordinator in consultation with
the National Steering Committee. 60 The Committee
consists of representatives of Government, environmental
NGOs and academia. It provides overall guidance and
strategic direction for the programme and screens and
selects projects for grants awards. In the ten years since
its inception, some 50 projects were supported throughout
Turkey in areas such as eco-tourism development, coastal
zone management, threatened species protection,
protected area management, raising public awareness,
environmental education and capacity building. Since
1998, about USD 1.4 million have been distributed in
small grants.
Based on the experience of the first five years of the
Turkey GEF/SGP programme, the second programme
(1999-2004) is intended to ensure scaling-up and
sustainability of its impact, and to promote effective
linkage of the environmental objectives in protection of
biodiversity and international waterways to sustainable
livelihood and local development.
(iv) New Environmental Initiatives
under Consideration
Three new environmental initiatives have recently been
started or are currently under consideration by the UNDP
Turkey Country Office. First, a small grants window,
administered by the UNDP, has been approved for
ecologically sustainable enterprises in connection with the
Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan pipeline project. Second, a GEF
Medium Size Project to help develop and support the
Küre Mountains National Park is under preparation.
Third, a major effort to assist in the preparation of the
environmental components of the 9th Five-Year plan,
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59. See UNDP Turkey website, www.undp.org.tr/Gef_sgp.htm.
60. According to the UNDP Resident Representative, the GEF/SGP team, while
physically located in the UNDP Country Office, operates largely independently
and without close strategic or managerial supervision from the Resident
Representative or his Deputy.
consistent with the EU accession requirements, is
under consideration.
(v) General Conclusions
for the Environment Agenda
In the SRF 2002 for Turkey, two overarching goals are
listed for the environmental area:
1) Improved capacity of authorities to plan and
implement integrated approaches to environmental
and energy development that respond to the needs of
the poor.
2) Global environmental concerns and commitments
integrated in national development planning and policy.
The UNDP’s involvement in the successful
preparation for the Johannesburg Summit, in the
ratification of the Convention for Climate Change, and
its support of a large number of small environmental
projects through the GEF/SGP programme undoubtedly
contributed to progress in achieving the two goals above.
However, lack of progress with the implementation of the
NPED over the last 12-15 months raises questions about
the sustainability of the results achieved. In particular, it
appears that much of the capacity that had been built in
the Ministry of Environment may have been eroded due
to institutional and staffing changes during 2003. And it
is still not clear to what extent there is ownership and
leadership within the Government to move forward
energetically with a national environmental programme.
Also, while the GEF/SGP has undoubtedly supported
many worthwhile small projects and NGOs, 61 it is unclear
whether the entire programme has resulted in sustainable
and scaled-up environmental action, either by creating
lasting CSO capacity or by producing irreversible benefits
significant on a national scale with global impacts.
These judgments regarding the sustainability and
significance of impacts of UNDP activity in the
environmental area are by necessity tentative, since the
Turkey ADR Evaluation Team did not have access to any
independent evaluations of the major initiatives.
However, judging from the feedback received both from
UNDP personnel and others, the assessment made here
appears to be quite widely shared.
For the future, it is clear that Turkey will continue to
face important environmental challenges, not least
because it will want to meet as quickly as possible the
requirements of EU accession in regard to environmental
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61. During its field visit to Diyarbakır, the Turkey ADR Evaluation Team met with one
NGO representative whose organisation had received a small grant from the
GEF/SGP. She enthusiastically supported the programme, without which her
organisation could not have embarked on a project to help preserve a particular
bird species.