Samoa attends 6th GEF Assembly and related meetings in Vietnam

Samoa recently joined 182 countries in Vietnam to take stock of GEF 6 and welcome the replenishment of the 7th cycle of the Global Environment Facility which runs from 2018 - 2022.

GEF has successfully resourced national activities mainly on climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation, land degradation, chemicals and waste, and international waters.

In Samoa’s statement, the Deputy Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa acknowledged positive progress on many fronts. This also included the issues that needed focused attention to ensure Samoa gets optimal benefit from GEF’s contribution, such as timely access to GEF resources due to the delay in the approval process. In addition to that was the need to revise procedures for access and approval to environment and climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building of relevance to SIDS. The gathering was reminded of the need to consider the special case of SIDS particularly their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and other external factors, must be considered and reflected in GEF Council decisions both in terms of resource allocations and project approval considerations.

A total of 29 donors pledged resources to GEF-7 resulting in an overall envelope of US$4.1 billion, which includes new donor funding of US$3.3 million in new funding and US$573 million in carryover from previous replenishment and US$150 million in projected investment income. Twenty two (22) contributing countries maintained their pledges as in GEF 6 and 15 increased their contributions. Excluding the impact of currency revaluation, new donor funding to GEF-7 is slightly more than GEF-6 level – which highlights strong support for GEF.

For the new cycle of funding, Samoa is looking at utilizing its national allocations on Food Security and an Ocean Program focusing on waste, plastics and affected biodiversity.

Samoa’s delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, and delegation members included Samoa’s Ambassador to the United Nations Aliioaiga Feturi Elisaia, CEO of MNRE Ulu Bismarck Crawley and Ms. Anne Rasmussen (ACEO and GEF Adviser, MNRE).

 

Source: Press Release