Glossary of Terms

Adaptive management approach: A flexible system which is designed to cope with uncertainty and complexity in natural environmental and social systems, by enabling current information, obtained as part of the management process, to be taken into consideration. It is often referred to as experimental management or "learning by doing".

Baseline: describes actions taken in the national interest whilst pursuing sustainable development goals. Thus any problem which can be solved through action by a single jurisdiction is termed the baseline.

Causal chain: A series of statements linking the causes of a problem with its effects. Each link in the chain is forged by answering the question “why? - what is the cause?”

Causal chain analysis: Examines the sequence of events that cause environmental and socio economic impacts. The first step of the analysis examines the immediate causes of the issue. The next step studies the sectoral pressures that underlie the immediate causes including a detailed analysis of current governance structures that affect the sectoral or immediate causes (e.g. regulations, public participation, institutions).

Civil society: a loose but useful term referring to those persons or organisations not directly involved in government, many of whom may be stakeholders in a GEF transboundary issue.

Concept paper: provides substantive technical information for the IA and GEF to determine whether a project concept is eligible for funding under the GEF.

Donors: Organisations contributing, or potentially contributing, to project funding.  The Steering Committee normally agrees who is eligible to attend its own meetings as observers.  As well as the normal individual donor involvement, the SAP process aims to encourage donor partnerships.  An effective donor partnership will act as an incentive for commitment to the SAP and will also avoid duplication of efforts by the donor community.

Ecosystem/Water Resource Quality Objectives (Eco/WR QOs): are statements of the ‘vision’ of how the stakeholders would like to see the state of the system in the future. They provide the long-term goal for adaptive management.

Environmental impact: The adverse effect of a transboundary problem on the integrity of an ecosystem. For example, loss of natural productivity and biodiversity as a result of the loss of an ecosystem.

Environmental status indicators: Environmental status indicators are goal orientated and focus on actual improvements of ecosystem quality that usually extend beyond the lifetime of the project. In other words, they are measures of actual success in restoring or protecting the targeted waterbody.

Executing agencies (EAs): contribute to the management and execution of GEF Projects. Executing agencies are chosen on their relative merits in order to ensure efficient operation of the project and appropriate technical support.

Facilitator: a trained and experienced expert capable of providing technical assistance to the IA for the initial stages of the project including the stakeholder consultation; he/she should be entirely neutral within the process, culturally sensitive and with proven negotiation skills.

Focal Areas: GEF projects address six complex global environmental issues (or Focal Areas), including International Waters (IW) for which there are three Operational Programmes, numbers 8, 9 and10.

Full Project (FP): The primary objective of the TDA and SAP is to provide sufficient evidence to warrant GEF intervention. GEF intervention is provided through Full Project grants.

Full Project brief: The project brief provides a route map for how sufficient evidence will be gathered to warrant a substantial GEF intervention (a Full Project). The Full Project brief is usually developed using Project Development Facility (PDF-B or Block B) funds.

GEF OP Focal Points: persons appointed by GEF member states to act as their empowered representative to the GEF Council.  Some countries also have GEF technical focal points who act as advisors to their political counterparts.

GEF Project cycle: comprises of four major phases of activity that are managed by the Implementing Agencies: project concept development; project preparation; project appraisal; and project approval and implementation supervision. Progression from one phase to another in the project cycle is through three discrete GEF decision or review points involving the GEF Secretariat. At the review points, documented proposals are considered on the basis of the GEF project review criteria by the GEF Secretariat, GEF CEO, or GEF Council.

GEF Secretariat: A staff of 40 based in the USA that reports to the GEF Council and Assembly, ensuring that their decisions are translated into effective actions. The secretariat coordinates the formulation of projects included in the annual work program, oversees its implementation, and makes certain that operational strategy and policies are followed.

GEF Strategic Priorities: There are 3 strategic priorities that underlie GEF Operational Programmes 8, 9 and 10. These are: Catalysing financial resources for implementation of agreed actions; Expanding global coverage with capacity building foundational work; and Undertaking innovative demonstrations for reducing contaminants and addressing water scarcity

Global Environment Facility (GEF): is an independent financial organisation that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit the global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities.

Governance analysis (GA): describes the dynamic relations within political and social structures that underpin such aspects as legislative and regulatory frameworks, decision-making processes and budgetary allocations.

Governance analysis team (GAT): A group of experts who undertake the governance analysis as part of the TDA/SAP process.

Immediate causes: (sometimes known as primary causes) are usually the direct technical causes of a transboundary problem. They are predominantly tangible (e.g. enhanced nutrient inputs, and with distinct areas of impact (with the exception of causes such as atmospheric deposition).

Implementing Agency (IA): GEF implementing agencies are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Bank. They play the key role in managing GEF projects on the ground.

Incremental costs: The GEF only funds the "incremental" or additional costs associated with transforming a project with national benefits (the baseline) into one with global environmental benefits.

Institutional analysis: centres on key institutions or organizations that either have direct mandates for environmental management or whose activities have environmental impacts. Crucially, it is not limited to government agencies, but includes private sector organisations, community-based organisations, academic and research institutions.

Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM): is a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

Interministerial Committees: Current systems of government are normally sectoral, with a different Ministry for each key sector. To develop an active TDA/SAP programme, direct participation of each involved ministry in each participating country is needed, but the interests of each have to be harmonised. To achieve this inter-sectoral policy building, it is advisable to form National Interministry Committees (or NICs), where each sector has both government representatives and other stakeholder representatives relevant to the sector.

International Waters (IW): International waters are those shared by one or more nation state. They are transboundary in nature but provide "free" goods and services to the economies of individual countries. In order to distinguish the GEF concept of international waters from the legal definition under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, the GEF operational strategy focuses on transboundary water resources, emphasising pollution and water resource management through a participatory process of bi-national and multi-national stakeholders.

IW Projects: GEF-funded IW projects are concerned with water-related environmental problems which transcend the boundaries of any one country.

Joint fact-finding: The scientific and technical process of fact-finding (or diagnosing) the state of, and threats to, international waters.

Long-term vision: links how a region is now with what it is hoped it will be in the future. The development of a long-term vision can only begin once the TDA is complete; the vision that is identified gives structure to the EcoQOs and, ultimately, direction to the SAP.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E): is a GEF management tool used to support decision-making, ensure accountability, measure results and impacts of projects and programmes, and extract lessons from a given programme and its projects. M&E is a shared responsibility between the GEF Secretariat and its IAs.

National Action Programme (NAP): Each country involved in the TDA/SAP process will need to develop a National Action Programme (NAP) (or Integrated Water Resource Management Plan (IWRMP) / Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), as appropriate). The reason for this is that the underlying causes as well as the complex linkages between the sources of environmental degradation and threats mean that national actions must respond to the uniquely specific circumstances and priorities of each country.

NAP Formulation Team: Team of technical experts in each participating country, appointed by the National Inter-ministry Committee and reflecting a similar mix of specialists as the SAP formulation team.

Operational Programme (OP): There are 15 Operational Programs through which the GEF provides grants. The GEF International Waters (IW) Focal Area is organised around three of these: OP8 Waterbody based operational programme; OP9 Integrated land and water multiple focal area programme; and OP10 Contaminant based operational programme.

Operational Strategy: The GEF Council has adopted an Operational Strategy that recognises that the reversal of environmental degradation in complex transboundary freshwater or marine situations may take decades. It was acknowledged that a series of projects with progressive GEF involvement may be needed in a specific basin or marine ecosystem to leverage the needed country reforms and investments for adequately addressing transboundary water issues. Collaborating countries often must address a whole host of scientific, social, political, institutional, cross-sectoral, and sovereignty issues through structured processes before they may commit to undertaking the required regional and country-based reforms and priority investments.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP): describe a country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs over a three year or longer horizon to promote broad-based growth and reduce poverty, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing. They are prepared by member countries through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders as well as external development partners, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Process indicators: focus on the processes or outputs that are likely to lead towards a desirable outcome. They demonstrate actual on-the-ground institutional and political progress in the step-by-step journey to the resolution of these complex problems. They should assist in tracking the institutional, policy, legislative and regulatory reforms necessary to bring about change.

Project Development Facility (PDF) Funds: are preparation funds to help a proposer develop a GEF co-financed project.

Project focal points: A person or persons (often senior government officials) empowered to act as national representatives for project implementation.

Project Management Unit (PMU): comprises of supporting staff members engaged by the Executing Agency to work with the PM under his/her supervision.

Project Manager (PM): Sometimes known as the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA). The person responsible to the Executing Agency for project implementation at the local level.

Root causes: Root causes are often related to fundamental aspects of macro-economy, demography, consumption patterns, environmental values, and access to information and democratic processes. Most of these are beyond the scope of GEF intervention, but it is useful to document them because some proposed solutions may be unworkable if the root causes of the problem are overwhelming and actions taken nearer to the root causes are more likely to have a lasting impact on the problem.

SAP formulation team: Team of technical specialists appointed by the PM with the agreement of the Steering Committee in order to undertake the technical studies for the SAP. It should include specialists in technical, legal, financial and public policy issues. The SAP formulation team should also include members of the TTT for continuity.

Scaling, scoping and screening: The main analytical and diagnostic work of the TDA has often been called Scaling – Scoping – Screening. This means that the scale (or timescale and geographical area) of each problem, and its scope (magnitude) must be determined, and then the problems must be screened to sort out those of high priority from the low.

Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP): provides strategic scientific and technical advice to the GEF on its strategy and programs. STAP has fifteen members who are internationally recognised experts in the GEFs key areas of work. STAP also maintains a roster of experts who advise on individual projects. Its work is supported by a secretariat based at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.

Short-term targets: define the pragmatic steps towards achieving agreed EcoQOs. The timescale of an EcoQO may be decades while a shorter-term target would be monitored and reported on over a period of 1 to 10 years. Targets may be environmental, such as some sort of water quality indicator or species abundance, or they may be more closely linked to societal factors such as the proportion of human sewage which is now being treated to secondary level. They should be unambiguous and easy to communicate to the public.

Socio-economic consequences: are the adverse effects of a transboundary problem or its environmental impacts on human welfare. For example, increased costs of water treatment, or illness due to pollution.

Stakeholders: Anybody with an involvement in, or affected by the problem or its potential solutions. This may include Government Ministries, Non-Governmental Organisations, Trade and Industry, Agriculture and Fisheries, Religious bodies, the local population and any other affected member of civil society.

Stakeholder analysis: As a prerequisite for Full Project approval, a stakeholder analysis must be conducted. This goes much further than the initial stakeholder consultation. It seeks to verify the interest of groups and individuals in the project concept. The analysis must also include information on affected populations.

Stakeholder consultation: To generate awareness, and create local capacity, it is essential to involve all stakeholders. A stakeholder consultation is a formal process designed to identify the main stakeholder groups (and their representatives) and to solicit their opinions on the main transboundary issues in the region.

Stakeholder representative: a person with the authority to act as spokesperson for a group of stakeholders.

Steering Committee: Typically, the central group formed to oversee the project. The committee is a body consisting of project focal point representatives (and technical advisors where appropriate), representatives of the donors and implementing and executing agencies, plus other stakeholder and civil society representatives.

Strategic Action Programme (SAP): is a negotiated policy document which should identify policy, legal and institutional reforms and investments needed to address the priority transboundary problems. Endorsed at the highest level, it establishes clear priorities for action to resolve the priority problems which were identified in the TDA. The preparation of a SAP is a cooperative process among the countries of the region.

Stress reduction indicators: relate to project objectives or outcomes. In particular, they focus on concrete actions that reduce environmental stress. They indicate the rate of success of specific on-the-ground actions implemented by collaborating countries. Often a combination of stress reduction indicators in several nations may be needed to produce detectable changes in transboundary waters.

TDA/SAP process: The development of a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) followed by the formulation of a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) is a requirement for most projects proposed for financing in Operational Programmes 8 and 9 of the GEF International Waters Focal Area.

Technical task team (TTT): a regional body formed by the OP Focal Point to provide technical advice on the initial project formulation and subsequently to undertake the technical process of TDA formulation and proposals for long-term EcoQOs. The team should be broadly representative of stakeholders but entirely technical in nature.

Transboundary: the majority of GEF-funded IW projects are concerned with water-related environmental problems which transcend the boundaries of any one country, hence transboundary. Consequently, the environments include marine and freshwaters (including wetlands, lakes, rivers and aquifers) that are shared by different countries.

Transboundary diagnostic Analysis (TDA): A TDA is an objective assessment and not a negotiated document. It uses the best available verified scientific and technical information to examine the state of the environment and the root causes for its degradation. The analysis is carried out in a cross sectoral manner, focusing on transboundary problems without ignoring national concerns and priorities.

Transboundary problem: A transboundary problem is any form of anthropogenic degradation in the natural status of a water body that concerns more than one country. Anthropogenic means caused by the activities of people rather than natural phenomena. A transboundary problem can originate in, or be contributed by, one country and affect (or impact) another.

Underlying causes: are those that contribute to the immediate causes of a transboundary problem. They can broadly be defined as underlying resource uses and practices, and their related social and economic causes.