Since its inception, SGP has provided over $838 million of GEF and other donor funds to over 30,000 community-led initiatives in 127 countries around the world. In addition, over $990 million has been mobilized as co-finance to community-based projects.
The Small Grants Program (SGP) is a corporate program of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since 1992. GEF SGP grantmaking in over 125 countries promotes community-based innovation, capacity development, and empowerment of local communities and civil society organizations (CSOs) with special consideration for indigenous peoples, women, and youth.
The programme provides grants of up to $50,000 directly to local communities including indigenous people, community-based organizations and other non-governmental groups for projects in Biodiversity, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Land Degradation and Sustainable Forest Management, International Waters and Chemicals.
Global Environment Facility
The SGP approach to results-based management, monitoring and evaluation is multi-tiered with dedicated procedures in place at the global, country and project levels. SGP applies UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards, and accompanying Social and Environmental Screening Procedures (SESP), to: (i) the design of project frameworks with the GEF and bilateral donors at the global level; and (ii) CPS documents at the country level. For grievances that may arise in SGP grantmaking at the national level, the NC and NSC are tasked to manage the appropriate conflict resolution measures in consultation with UNDP CO, CPMT, and responsible parties. As an integral function of UNDP’s second level oversight for the programme at the global level, either the CPMT and/or the BPPS Nature Hub may initiate a trouble-shooting mission, as well as formal investigations, as deemed appropriate.
More information about monitoring and reporting procedures in the GEF Small Grants Programme - UNDP Operational Guidelines.
The SGP is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
At the global level, the Central Program Management Team provides global oversight to SGP's global operations and decentralized country programs. Since 2011, the most mature SGP country programs have upgraded to full-sized projects and are managed by UNDP's Communities, Livelihoods and Markets cluster. These countries are: Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
At the national and local levels, SGP operates in a decentralized and country-driven manner through country program teams composed of a National Coordinator (NC), often a Program Assistant (PA), and a National Steering Committee (NSC) in each participating country. SGP country programs are hosted primarily by UNDP Country Offices, but also by national host institutions (NHI).
Please find the SGP eligibility test for potential grantee partners linked here.
Please click here to see a list of SGP participating countries.
The project proponent - a national CBO or NGO- contacts the SGP National Coordinator to receive project application guidelines and forms.
With assistance from the National Coordinator, the proponent prepares a brief project concept paper and submits this to the coordinator.
The national coordinator reviews and pre-screens the concept paper according to see if it meets the GEF SGP criteria and other criteria adopted by the NSC for activities in that country and explain in the Country Programme Strategy (CPS).
If the project is judged eligible, the project proponent prepares a project proposal; in some cases, this step may be supported by a planning grant.
Completed project proposals are submitted by the National Coordinator to the NSC.
The NSC reviews the proposal and either accepts it, rejects it, or returns it to the proposer with a request that further work be done on formulating and refining the project data.
Approved proposals enter the national SGP work programme. SGP grants are usually paid in three installments: an up-front payment to initiate the project; a mid-term payment upon receipt of a satisfactory progress report; and a final payment on receipt of a satisfactory project completion and final report.