The
Small Grants Cluster (SGC) is based in New York, USA under ECR – Europe and
Central Asia Region. Its Portfolio Managers and Portfolio Associates are
currently based in New York and Copenhagen, with a geographical distribution of
work in five regions: Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean,
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Its
service lines range from full-cycle grant management to operations support
(Finance, Procurement and HR) through programme support services – supporting
sustainable livelihoods around the world. SGC uses Prince2 project management
methodology to ensure the projects delivered meet the high quality standards
required by its partners.
The SGC
provides services to major partners the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the AusAid, the Government of
Japan, USAID, the Government of Germany and the European Union.
With a
current small grants portfolio of around 3,000 small grants projects expanded
in over 125 countries with a total budget of over US$300 million (yearly
delivery of approximately US$55 million), UNOPS has a solid experience – over
20 years’ – in delivering grants to local NGOs/CSOs.
Small Grants
Programme
Launched
in 1992, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) has
been promoting grassroots actions to address global environmental concerns. As
a corporate GEF programme, SGP is implemented by UNDP, and executed by GPSO-SGC
within UNOPS. As the responsible Executing Agency, UNOPS provides services to
UNDP for administrative, financial and legal aspects of grant-making and
country operations.
The
Small Grants Programme aims to deliver global environmental benefits in the GEF
focal areas of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, protection
of international waters, prevention of land degradation (primarily
desertification and deforestation), forestry management and elimination of
persistent organic pollutants (POP) through community-based approaches. SGP’s
motto is “community action – global impact”.
SGP is operational in over 125 countries and
provides funding up to $50,000 per project for community actions. To date, SGP
has channeled more than $300 million to communities through more than 14,000
projects around the world, which have resulted in direct global environmental
benefits and also influenced the formulation of national and local policies on
sustainable environmental and development management.