Amman – Under the patronage of his excellency the Minister of Environment Dr 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.

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. The Small Grants Programme (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 challengesز

As a response to COVID-19 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 socio-ecological 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 organizations and networks.

 “The small grants program (SGP) 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 organizations (CBOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs).  The meeting today comes while we suffer the impacts of covid19 pandemic not only on the health but also on the environment and Economic, which needs effectively address the current environment challenges to take a relevant actions toward green recovery in addition to strengthen  the local communities to build back better” said his Excellency the Minister of Environment Dr Nabil Masarweh,

“The crisis we face with COVID-19 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.

The Small Grants Programme provides grants of up to $50,000 per project for projects in Biodiversity, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Land Degradation and Sustainable Forest Managemen

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

Ms. 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. She added that since the beginning of the UNDP operations in Jordan in 1976, environment protection and climate action was one of the first focus areas of UNDP programme and the Ministry of Environment has been our main national partner in this area.

UNDP has launched and is initiated different programmes tackling sustainable Livelihoods creation focusing on green jobs and women empowerment, particularly in Shouneh, Mafraq and Eastern Amman, where CBOs are main partners to deliver services and help in creating green jobs within targeted communities. This cycle of the SGP will focus on targeting the same geographic locations and communities to maximize the impact of resources.