GEF ISLANDS 10279 Ad Hoc Project Steering Committee Meeting

The GEF ISLANDS Programme is one of the largest investments made by the GEF Waste and Chemicals Focal Area and consists of seven (7) Child Projects, three (3) of which will take place in the Caribbean. The Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean) is currently the executing agency for three of the ISLANDS Child projects, two of which have similar cross-cutting activities and are implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

• The project GEF ID 10279 in nine (9) Caribbean countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. This project is implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
• The project GEF ID 10472 in three (3) Caribbean countries, including the Bahamas, Cuba and Dominica. This project is implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Further to the approval of the GEF ISLANDS 10472 Project involving The Bahamas, Cuba and Dominica and the finalisation of the project executing arrangements in January 2022, it was well recognised that the joint execution of several activities of the GEF ISLANDS 10279 and 10472 projects via joint consultancies could be beneficial as there may be:

• project management benefits related to both national and regional executing arrangements,
• additional national benefits based on project savings incurred, and
• additional regional benefits through improved collaboration between the twelve (12) project countries.

As such, the BCRC-Caribbean engaged the national focal points from the nine (9) project countries, who form part of the GEF ISLANDS 10279 Project Steering Committee (PSC), to discuss the potential synergies between the project activities. The proposed approach will be discussed with the three (3) GEF ISLANDS 10472 countries at the project Inception meeting scheduled for Friday March 11, 2022. Further to the endorsement of the proposed approach, and associated workplans and budget, the project will be executed accordingly.

The meeting was facilitated via the Zoom platform on Thursday February 03, 2022, at 9:00am (GMT-4).