Alua Kennedy

Inclusive dialogue with stakeholders is increasing country ownership and helping to enhance the impact of programming in GEF’s new four-year funding cycle, known as GEF-7. Over the last six months in more than 20 countries, government ministries, GEF implementing agencies, and other stakeholders including academics, the private sector and NGOs have gathered with representatives from the GEF Secretariat for country-driven consultations called National Dialogues.

From heads of states and business leaders, to environmental activists and avant-garde artists - the 8th NYC Climate Week features events to gather them all and deliver a single critical message across all levels of society - we have been pushing our planet to its limits for far too long. The time to act and change the course is now.

In 1999, there were no iPhones, no social media, and landlines were used to connect to the internet. The euro was just born, the first Matrix movie hit theatres, and everyone was waiting for the end of the world that computers were supposed to cause at the change of the millennium.

What else was happening in 1999? The Global Environment Facility and its partners proposed a grant for an Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) technology, also known as the Ain Beni Mathar ISCC power plant...

Indigenous and traditional communities everywhere have special relationships with the natural environment they live in. Fishermen, cattle-breeders, farmers, they rely on land and water for their livelihoods. Drastic changes in climate have devastating impact on their lives and adapting to them is especially difficult if a community lives in a war-torn country like Afghanistan...

Also available in: العربية As the International Day of the Girl Child is coming up on October 11, it reminds us of an important role governments can play to help girls lead their own lives. [[tweetable]]Investing in girls’ empowerment is a smart way to invest in a country.[[/tweetable]] Check out...

For those of us who think that driving a hybrid, biking to work, or cutting down on red meat will save the planet from falling into Anthropocene - bad news, it will not. As essential as they are, individual actions alone will not make the difference - we need big players’ commitment, from business and political leaders at all levels of society to reduce carbon emissions, phase-out fossil fuels, and switch to clean energy...

On March 3rd, there are so many ways to celebrate World Wildlife Day 2016. One can go to the zoo and take pictures with elephants, organize a wildlife photo exhibition, participate in a street parade, host an art contest, organize a panel discussion or a film screening, and maybe even release captive animals into the wild. If you are up for a fun activity of this sort, we recommend you to take a look at this map of global #WorldWildlifeDay events. But before heading out on your adventures, check out GEF’s wildlife protection must-read list.

It’s a secret to no one that getting things done in fragile and conflict-affected (FCS) situations is more difficult than in normal, peaceful environments. A recent World Bank report “The Small Entrepreneur in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations” looked into the motives and challenges of small entrepreneurs in FCS countries and...

I like entertaining my western friends with stories of growing up in the post-communist Kazakhstan limbo, when everything ended, but nothing had yet started. Stories of how my friends and I would collect old newspapers to trade for books and Moscow magazine subscriptions. ​And later on, selling empty milk bottles...

The campaign launched at UNEA-2 and in the run-up to World Environment Day (WED), which this year is themed "Go Wild For Life”, urged politicians, celebrities and business leaders to help bring global attention to the fight against illegal wildlife trade...

These days, one might think understanding the importance of forests for our planet should not be hard - even a fifth grader knows that forests are the lungs of the Earth. Yet despite this common knowledge, the world’s forest area continues to decrease at alarming rate due to the expansion of agriculture, timber production, urbanization, and road construction. According to the last Global Forest Resources Assessments released last year by FAO, each year more than 7 million hectares of natural forests are lost and 50 million hectares of forestland are burned...