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It supports development effectiveness and UN coordination through the efficient, accountable and transparent design and administration of innovative pooled financing mechanisms. For more information, consult the MPTF Office Gateway and publications.
Gabon is the first country in Africa to receive results-based payments for reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The first payment is part of the breakthrough agreement between Gabon and the multi-donor UN-hosted Central African Forest Initiative’s (CAFI) in 2019 for a total of $150 million over ten years.
After independent experts verified Gabon's results from reduced deforestation and forest degradation (mainly from forestry activities), the payment of $17 million US dollars rewards Gabon's reductions in 2016 and 2017, compared to annual emission levels from 2006 to 2015.
At a high-level event organised on Tuesday, Sveinung Rotevatn, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment said on behalf of CAFI:
"This is the first time an African country has been rewarded for reducing forest-related emissions at the national level. It is extremely important that Gabon has taken this first step. The country has demonstrated that with strong vision, dedication and drive, emissions reductions can be achieved in the Congo Basin forest.”
Gabon is leading the way in maintaining its status of High Forest Cover Low Deforestation (HFLD) country. The country’s forest management approach is science-based and robust. Despite low historical rates of deforestation and forest degradation, Gabon has been able to reduce CO2 emissions even further.
Being a low deforestation country means, however, that Gabon’s potential to reduce emissions is even more limited. Therefore, new mechanisms such as the ART-TREES HFLD methodology[1] are underway as incentives for HFLD countries to maintain low deforestation rates.
Gabon’s Minister of Water and Forests, the Seas, the Environment, charged with Climate Change and Land Use Planning, Professor Lee White said:
“This first payment of ODA financing, which is proportional to our historic emissions reductions in 2016 and 2017 at $5/ton, will finance projects that preserve Gabon’s forests. It also paves the way for Gabon to finalize the systems that will be required to enable the country to formally sell carbon credits in the future.”
“CAFI’s recognition of our systems and data is particularly encouraging in that they are a global reference on REDD+ payments. We are working with partners to develop payments mechanisms that will enable us to stabilize forests and reverse deforestation and forest degradation in HFLD countries, rather than simply slowing (=reducing) deforestation,” Professor White added.
Gabon and CAFI have agreed that this first payment will go towards activities that further decrease CO2 emissions through investments into community forestry, scientific research, forest management practices, protected areas system and government capacity, and that further enhance the income, livelihoods, and wellbeing of communities in Gabon.
Gabon has preserved much of its pristine rainforest since the early 2000s in creating 13 national parks, one of which is listed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its forests absorb a total of 140 million tons of CO2 every year, the equivalent of removing 30 million cars from the road globally.
Gabon has also made significant advances in sustainable management of its timber resources outside the parks, with an ambition to ensure that all forest concessions are FSC-certified. Forest spans over 88% of its territory, and deforestation rates have been consistently low (less than 0.08%) since 1990. Gabon’s forests house pristine wildlife and megafauna including 60% of the remaining forest elephants, sometimes called the “architects” or “gardeners” of the forest for their roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems and recently listed as critically endangered.
In line with the implementation of UN reform agenda, UN Joint Programmes supported by the Fund will demonstrate a new generation of collaboration for results, embedded in the UN Cooperation Frameworks and committed to enhanced national ownership, leadership, and capacities. The strength in partnerships builds resilience and reduces vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States to leave no one behind.
Sustainable growth will require economic diversification and higher participation from a skillful workforce. To prevent disasters, advance the economy and enable the public sector to deliver services to people and enterprises, access to modern innovative technologies, led by digitalization are critical.
Governments face challenges in accessing financing for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation and funding modern and resilient social protection systems. Vulnerable groups have been proportionally hit harder by the recent economic crisis. Furthermore, the skills-gap and the impacts of COVID-19 has resulted in higher levels of youth unemployment. This Call for Proposals will support a new generation of transformative, Government-led, integrated initiatives that leverage the best expertise and resources possible to address complex problems and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
The Joint SDG Fund announces a call for proposals focusing on strengthening resilience and ending the vulnerabilities of SIDS to accelerate the SDGs. The overall funding envelope for this Call is US$30 million. All SIDS countries are eligible to receive funding, including countries previously funded in the Joint SDG Fund’s existing portfolios. Intended to be catalytic, funding will support targeting programmatic solutions of 2 years or less, with a budget of US$1 million per country. Multi-Country Offices will be eligiblefor funding envelopes corresponding to the countries and populations they serve and be reviewed on case by case basis.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a shared set of geographical, environmental, economic, and social challenges, and suffer from unique development needs and extreme vulnerability. Frequent exposures to natural hazards and disasters intensified by climate change and external economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are detrimental to these island nations.
Cash transfer programme to reach 1, 587 vulnerable households across the country
Azevedo Gomes belongs to a village community inhabited by close to 500 people, some thirty kilometres south of the town of Cacheu. At 98 years of age, he remains firm and grows fruits and tubers in his farm and even recalls having been a seasonal migrant to The Gambia, where he worked as a stevedore. But with the onset of COVID-19 in Guinea-Bissau, Gomes, as many other agricultural workers in the country, has been negatively affected by mitigation measures put in place to prevent further transmission of the disease.
The state of emergency declared on March 27th, 2020, meant that borders and schools were closed, markets, where crops grown by farmers like Gomes would have been sold, faced drastic restrictions and movement across the different regions was limited. The introduction of COVID-19 in the country also coincided with the cashew campaign, which proved to be unsuccessful as global demand fell.
Gomes, and other vulnerable Bissau-Guineans, who depended on the revenue from cashews and the sale of other produce both nationally and internationally, were faced with increasing threats to their livelihoods and food insecurity.
In a bid to alleviate some of the pandemic’s worst consequences on Guinea-Bissau’s most vulnerable populations, UNICEF, supported by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund for COVID-19 and in coordination with WFP and UNDP, intervened to ensure that these households would have access to social and economic protection mechanisms, food security, and even support for cashew crop growers. One of the villages identified for the programme was Bianga, where Azevedo Gomes resides.
UNICEF/GuineBissau/Mendes
Recently awakened from his nap, he welcomed the programme implementation team smiling, and inquiring about where they travelled from. Overjoyed at receiving the cash transfer, equivalent to two thirds of the national minimum wage, Gomes expressed that it has helped to improve his diet, “I buy fish every day. I like fish, it’s my favourite”. He added that the fund also helped him to pay bills, including the school fees for his great-grandchildren.
UNICEF/GuineBissau/Mendes
His is one of 1,587 households that was supported across the country through the distribution of cash transfers. The programme was implemented by providing identified households with phones and SIM cards to allow families to access funds through mobile money. Mobile phones were also critical as they were used to conduct surveys to inform the baseline and end line data. Access to phones has also facilitated the feedback mechanism between UNICEF and the beneficiaries to enable them to provide feedback on the program and present claims. The program has also assessed its impact through measurements like the dietary diversity of women and children, demographics that are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Of the households identified for the cash transfer programme, 66 percent of them were headed by women and the vast majority had 5 or more dependents. With schools being closed under lockdown measures, additional stressors were placed on children’s principal caregivers.
UNICEF/GuineBissau/Mendes
But Gomes remains hopeful, “I had the happiness of living a long and productive life filled with experience”, he says.
He hopes to pass it down to the younger generations just as he hopes to learn with them. Gomes is renewed with each new day, despite the precarities of the village that is isolated by treacherous roads and the hardship in the times of the pandemic. He is grateful to find a bit of support for his subsistence, so that he can continue surviving the worst consequences of COVID-19 and pass on his wisdom wherever he can.
New York - The UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, the UN center of expertise in pooled funding, is pleased to announce Ilaria Carnevali as its new Deputy Executive Coordinator.
Ilaria brings over 20 years of experience in the UN System in addition to an extensive prior private sector career, mostly in international banking with focus on emerging economies and loan syndications. Her programme management experience and work in key thematic areas (including governance, children’s rights, gender equality, and crisis prevention and recovery) will be a key asset for the management for the MPTF Office’s broad portfolio of inter-agency pooled funds.
Ilaria also has a varied geographic and leadership experience. Most recently she served as UNICEF Representative a.i. and Deputy Representative in Niger. Previously she had worked in Cabo Verde (UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF Joint Office), Mozambique (as UNDP Deputy Country Director), Mauritania (UNDP Deputy Resident Representative) and in Ukraine (UNDP’s Head of Governance Programmes). She has also worked in UNIFEM Africa and UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.
She holds an Advanced Degree (Laurea) in Business Administration from Bocconi University (Italy) and a Master of Arts in international Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs from Syracuse University (USA), with concentration in International Economic Policy and Latin America. Ms. Carnevali is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, is married and has three children.
