This study analyzes the relationship between local benefits and global environment benefits in the GEF covering 132 GEF projects, including 18 field case studies.
The study found that the role of local benefits in supporting the environmental objectives of GEF activities raises a broad and potentially conflicting range of viewpoints, which influence the approaches applied to project design and implementation. On the basis of the substantial body of evidence gathered, the study concludes that, for many areas of GEF-supported activity, local and environmental benefits are interlinked.
The study concentrated only on those GEF projects that had stated objectives to generate local benefits as an essential mechanism in achieving their intended global benefits. The study focused on the role of benefits at the local level: that is, the geographical area directly affected by the intervention. It deliberately did not concentrate on the many benefits interventions can and do generate beyond the direct area of intervention, whether in other regions of the country, or at the national or even transnational level.
The study's findings, conclusions, and recommendations create an important platform on which the GEF can further strengthen the delivery of its global environmental mandate by more effectively developing and sustaining local-level support for its objectives and the activities needed to deliver them.