Le Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial

The FFEM's grant contribution ranges from €500,000 to €2,000,000 per project.

The FFEM intervenes solely as a co-financier. A co-financing contribution is one that directly supports the project's specific objectives and is essential to its implementation. Project leadership and/or management involves close synergy among all co-financing partners, including the FFEM: the project owner or steering committee is the same for all co-financing sources.

The FFEM’s co-financing rate is:
- a maximum of 50% for NGOs, local public actors, research institutions, and social and solidarity economy enterprises (excluding mission-driven companies);
- a maximum of 30% for for-profit companies and international organisations.

At each stage of the review process, it must be stated whether the co-financing is requested, to be requested, or already secured. The project evaluation will include an analysis of the actual mobilisation of the expected co-financing.

The duration of activities co-financed by the FFEM may not exceed 5 years, except in duly justified and formalised cases. The FFEM does not aim to ensure the sustainability of a project beyond its initially planned duration. It is up to the project holder to identify, during project implementation, the financial resources required to ensure continuity beyond 5 years.

The FFEM’s Principles for supporting projects involving a component of “carbon finance”.
The comparative study of compensation standards carried out by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MTE) is based on an analysis of 5 fundamental criteria (Measurability, Verifiability, Permanence, Additionality, Uniqueness) and 3 additional criteria (Respect for human rights, Inclusion of environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda). The evaluation of projects by the FFEM that include a “carbon finance” component will follow this framework, with an emphasis on 5 key principles:

• multi-benefit projects rooted in a “territorial” or “value chain” approach;
• robust certification;
• transparent, participatory governance that supports scaling up;
• fair and transparent distribution of benefits;
• compensation as a last resort in the “Avoid-Reduce-Compensate” sequence.

These are numerous and vary depending on the objectives: evaluation at project mid-point and after completion, capitalising experiences within the project, or themed evaluation and capitalisation spanning several projects, which may be strategic or country-/region-specific etc. The evaluation is intended to present the specific aspects of each project: the roles of those involved, the status of practices, benefits of the support provided, reasons for any failures etc. These analyses enrich the FFEM’s intervention strategies and evaluation methods, and feed in to dissemination of experiences and promoting of expertise. The FFEM makes available all useful information relating to projects it supports to the capitalisations and evaluations coordinated by the Evaluation Office at the French Development Agency.

The Steering Committee: Comprises the FFEM’S six member institutions. Develops the FFEM’sgeneral policy and determines project funding after consulting with the Scientific and Technical Committee and Secretariat. Project examination involves the Secretariat and the Scientific and Technical Committee, which both give their opinion on the project, and the Steering Committee, which approves project identification and decides in the end on FFEM funding.

To receive FFEM funding, a project must meet nine eligibility criteria:

• contributes to global environmental protection;
• contributes to local sustainable development in one or more developing countries;
• is innovative;
• has demonstrative value and replicability;
• is economically and financially sustainable once funding ends;
• is ecologically and environmentally viable;
• is socially and culturally acceptable, with local ownership;
• has an appropriate institutional framework;
• has a monitoring and evaluation mechanism.

It is also interested in seeing whether a project addresses any of the following points:

• uses the Theory of Change;
• includes partnerships;
• considers inequalities, women, youth, and vulnerable populations;
• will share knowledge gained by the project;
• has sustainable funding and co-financing.
• Applied research activities that give rise to or that are in relation with development activities can be funded by the FFEM. Basic research activities are, however, not eligible to receive its financial support.

The FFEM cofinances in any developing country eligible for official development assistance. Priority is given to Africa: the FFEM’s objective is to commit approximately two-thirds of its resources there.

ODA-Eligible Countries