The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has completed the training for 23 Operational Focal Points (OFPs) and staff of OFP offices from 13 countries, strengthening their oversight of GEF-funded environmental projects. The training was designed to enable OFPs take greater ownership of their GEF portfolios by enhancing their roles and responsibilities and project oversight in particular.
Participants gained new knowledge and insights and shared experiences that will support them in reviewing project performance during the implementation in their own countries. The training also shared best practices to maximize the impact of GEF resources.
Overall, the training empowered participants to effectively plan, manage and actively oversee environmental projects, ensuring lasting results that align with their countries’ environmental and development priorities. Operations officer at the Global Environment Facility, Omid Pahizkar during his session emphasized GEF is revising it co-financing policies to reflect national needs making the fund relevant and impactful.
Learning from Ghana: theory to practice
To put their new knowledge into practice, participants of the training visited an e-waste separation site in Agbogbloshie, Accra. The site is part of the Africa Environmental Health and Pollution Management program (AEHPMP), and offered a valuable opportunity to see real-world impact and interact directly with stakeholders at the grassroots.
At the site, participants saw how Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the program’s lead Agency, is overseeing the project from the ground up. Such field visits are vital – the help ensure projects deliver on their promises, and keep GEF OFPs engaged and informed throughout the project cycle, from design to implementation.
Dr Rosie Trevelyan, Director of the Tropical Biology Association, highlighted the purpose of the visit, as “an effort to transfer skills geared towards ensuring the GEF OFPS take greater ownership of their GEF portfolios”
The AEHPMP, a GEF-funded regional program being implement in Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. It aims to reduce environmental health risks from pollutants, especially in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and e-waste. In Ghana, the program has collected 800 tons of e-waste through the 7,000 local vendors, significantly improving air quality in areas like Agbogbloshie. The EP also reported that Ghana has adopted e-waste regulations, and applies standard operating systems to all items bought from the vendors, including batteries, turbo plastics, and cables.
The experience deeply inspired the participants. Many expressed strong desires to push for similar regulations in their own countries and requested Ghana’s EPA to share the knowledge and best practices to that theses success could be replicated across West Africa. They also praised the program for creating jobs locally, while protecting the environment.
The two-day regional training, held from 10–11 April, was organised by Global Environment Facility in collaboration with the Tropical Biology Association, and co-hosted by the GEF Operational Focal Point Office in Ghana. The training is part of the GEF’s broader initiative – “Financial and Training Support to GEF OFPs in Africa on Project Oversight”, – under its Country Engagement Strategy for the GEF-8 Replenishment Period. Through this initiative, the Tropical Biology Association is supporting OFPs in 25 African countries—14 in West Africa and 11 in Southern Africa—to strengthen their project oversight capacity between 1 January 2025 and 30 April 2026.
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