The Global Environment Facility (GEF) that has been established in 1991, is a financial mechanism structured as a trust fund that helps developing countries fund projects and programmes to protect the global environment.
GEF will hold a three-day workshop “National Dialogue Initiative (NDI)” in Jordan. The Workshop will start next Monday, 19 September 2005 and will gather main national stakeholders from government institutions, academia and research centers, non-governmental organizations, international donor agencies, and private sector, as well as representatives of GEF and representatives of UNDP, UNEP and World Bank.
In cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Jordan and Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation the Workshop aims to strengthen Jordan’s ownership and involvement in GEF co-financed activities through a multi-stakeholder dialogue process. It will provide a unique forum that facilitates the link between formal, professional knowledge and informal, local knowledge to address national GEF related concerns.
The main objectives of GEF’s workshop are to assist Jordan by:
- Promoting in-depth understanding of the GEF's strategic directions, policies and procedures;
- Strengthening country coordination and ownership in GEF operations and sharing lessons learned from project implementation; and
- Achieving greater mainstreaming of GEF activities into national planning frameworks and coordination and synergies amongst the GEF focal areas and convention issues at the national level.
The GEF’s projects gives priorities to initiatives which address critical environmental threats in the areas of climate change, land degradation, biodiversity, international waters, the ozone layer and persistent organic pollutants.