AN OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS WITH REFERENCE TO MARINE CAPACITY BUILDING

This paper provides a brief overview of the development of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) since its creation in June 1991 and the nat ure of its activities in the field of International Waters, Whilst it is recognised that the GEF represents the single largest source of int ernational financial assistance for achieving global environmental ben efits its investment in International Waters remains comparatively sma ll, Since the GEF is designed to achieve global environmental benefits through provision of grant and concessionary funding for the agreed i ncremental costs of projects its primary objective is not capacity bui lding, Nevertheless, the need for capacity building at the individual and institutional levels within projects was recognised early during t he initiation of GEF activities. More recently the need for programmat ic approaches to capacity building within the GEF has been identified and is being addressed. It is suggested that potentially the role of t he GEF in environmental and marine capacity building could be most imp ortant at a global, system-wide level, in terms of testing and promoti ng innovative and novel approaches to issues of environmentally sound and sustainable economic development. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.