83724 November 2013 – Number 109 THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY (GEF) IN MENA Dominique Isabelle Kayser, Song Li, Suiko Yoshijima1 Introduction: Environmental stress is a serious concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, although it is not new. Stretching across the northern Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula, the region is dominated by the Sahara and Arabian deserts, two of the world’s driest zones. Over the centuries, the unique environmental constraints of water scarcity and severely limited arable land have shaped the evolution of the region’s human societies. Recent years have witnessed important changes Avenue Habib Bourguiba. Tunis, Tunisia. Photo: © Dana that are pushing the boundaries of the region’s Smillie/World Bank (DS-TN018 World Bank) environmental legacy. Economic growth, sustained by reliance on rich deposits of oil, gas, this environmental degradation would imply and other natural resources, has spurred considerable costs and significant harm to population growth. That has fueled livelihoods, public finances, and the economic urbanization, industrial development, and competitiveness of the region. Recognizing this, increasingly unsustainable agricultural over the past two decades important efforts practices, compounding the harmful impact on have been made, at both national and regional the environment. Infrastructure is also stressed levels, to enhance environmental management by the growing demand for new investments and protection. and growing numbers of urban poor. The Global Environment Facility: At the same The current trends are declining water resources time, in seeking to diversify their growth per capita, shrinking arable land, deteriorating sectors, countries in the MENA region have vulnerable coastal zones and marine resources, embraced a longer-term development vision rising energy use, and mounting pollution, founded on uses of natural capital that are particularly in urban areas. If left unchecked, optimized and sustainable. One of the ways forward has been through the World Bank’s 1 The authors work at World Bank Headquarters in partnership with the Global Environment Washington, DC. They can be reached at Facility (GEF)2. dkayser@worldbank.org, sli@worldbank.org, syoshijima@worldbank.org . This MENA K&L Quick Note is based on a longer brochure issues by the World Bank and available by contacting the MNA K&L team (see back of the Quick Note) or the authors. 2 For more on the GEF see gef.worldbank.org • encourage more stringent pollution management through cleaner and smarter urban and industrial development Over the past 20 years, the World Bank has channeled US$278.5 million in GEF grants to MENA countries to help them tackle complex global environmental problems. The grants have supported targeted local actions across a variety of economic sectors, including agriculture, water, and energy, as well as urban development, biodiversity conservation, poverty At present, the region’s most pressing reduction, and social development. environmental challenges stem from rapid urbanization and its resulting infrastructure These grants have leveraged $2 billion of World needs, industrial pollution, overexploitation of Bank lending and other resources. These GEF scarce water resources, the unsustainable grants have helped MENA countries take management of fragile ecosystem resources and decisions in favor of the global environment and vulnerability to climate variability and climate sustainable development by supporting change. Decision makers working to address innovation and adoption of new, diversified these problems also face many tightly linked approaches. This has helped attract larger-scale and urgent social issues. These issues include program financing, setting the stage for next- meeting the aspirations of a quickly growing generation projects. Important social benefits urban youth population; giving voice to gender have been gained through job creation, greater and women’s issues; finding ways to spur job economic and social inclusion, and strengthened growth; and reversing the poor provision of governance capabilities. Across the region, these basic services. supported actions have served to help: This MENA K&L Quick Note summarizes the • diversify energy sources and increase energy value-added that two decades of World Bank security GEF-funded work in support of the environment has contributed to the MENA • encourage green job creation region’s environmental, health, and social and economic development, and points to • optimize the productive and sustainable use of opportunities for further cooperation in support desert ecosystems; of green growth. • adapt economic development strategies and For a summary of MENA GEF projects see practices to the impacts of climate change below: • manage protected areas better and conserve Protecting Biological Diversity and Managing the biodiversity of fragile landscapes Protected Areas: • reduce the over-exploitation and resulting Algeria: Sustainable Protection of the El Kala pollution of trans-boundary waters, and National Park and Wetlands Complex (1994–1999) - The El Kala National Park and Wetlands Complex was created in 1983 and is a mosaic of November 2013 · Number 109 · 2 forest, lake, dune, and marine ecosystems Coping with the Changing Climate: located in the northeastern part of the country. It is rich in biological diversity and high in Yemen: Adapting to Climate Change by Exploiting endemic species of great importance to the Agrobiodiversity in the Rain-fed Highlands (2010– entire Mediterranean basin. The project focused 2014) - In the highlands of Yemen, a GEF- on the park’s sustainable protection. funded agro-biodiversity and climate adaptation project is enhancing strategies for coping with Jordan: Integrating Conservation with Development climate change by preserving and using agro- in the Dana Wildlands (1994–1999) - The first biodiversity and traditional agricultural World Bank GEF-funded project in Jordan, the practices. Conservation of the Dana Wildlands and Institutional Strengthening of RSCN project, Mitigating Climate Change: supported improvements in the management of the Dana Wildlands Reserve. Egypt: Harnessing the Power of the Sun (2007– 2011) - In Egypt, the Kureimat Solar Thermal Morocco: Supporting Conservation and Poverty Hybrid project, which made use of GEF funding, Reduction with Small Grants (2000–2008) - The allowed the government to increase its share of Morocco Protected Areas Management Project renewable energy by building one of the most supported the government in establishing and innovative commercial-scale solar energy- managing a network of national parks and assisted power plants in the region. reserves while fostering a sustainable Concentrating solar power (CSP) does exactly as partnership between the local populations and its name suggests: it allows for the power of the the Ministry of Water and Forestry, the national sun to be harnessed through the use of mirrors, entity responsible for their management. which reflect and concentrate, or capture, the sun’s energy onto receivers, typically piping that Tunisia: Contributing to a Sustainable carries the energy in the form of heat. Mediterranean (2005–2012) - In Tunisia, the government solicited GEF funding with the Morocco: Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) support of the World Bank to develop and put Power (2007–2012) - Under a global GEF- into practice a system for mitigating the loss of supported program designed to accelerate cost biodiversity in the Gulf of Gabes through reduction and the commercial adoption of large- integrated monitoring and participatory scale low-greenhouse-gas (GHG) emitting management. generation technologies (see Egypt above), the Government of Morocco with the World Bank’s International Waters: Working Across Borders support secured GEF grant to finance an ISCC and Boundaries to Revitalize Shared Seas: power plant. The project’s overall objectives were to reduce GHG emissions from energy Regional: Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Large Marine production by increasing the market share of Ecosystem (1999–2005) - In 1999, countries in this low-GHG-emitting technologies and to test the maritime region, together with the World Bank viability of solar thermal technology. and UN and regional conservation organizations, secured funding from GEF for a Tunisia: Building a Sustainable Energy Efficiency Strategic Action Program for the Red Sea and Market (2004–2011) - The GEF funded Tunisian the Gulf of Aden. The partner countries are Energy Efficiency Project was designed to Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, overcome institutional and capacity barriers to a Sudan, and Yemen. The partnership developed sustainable market for energy efficiency by an overarching regional framework for the encouraging the adoption of an appropriate protection and sustainable development of policy framework. The project offered incentives coastal and marine resources. for industries by administering an output-based subsidy, to be paid once demonstrable energy efficiency measures were in place. November 2013 · Number 109 · 3 Persistent Organic Pollutants: Jordan: Saving the Badia Ecosystem and Promoting Livelihoods (2012–2017) - The Jordan Badia, a Tunisia: Africa Stockpiles Program (2005–2012) - desert region that receives annual rainfall of Over the past decades, poor pesticide only 50 to 200 mm, comprises 80 percent of the management combined with bans on the use of country’s territory. Over the past two decades, certain chemicals led many African countries to human and natural factors alike, including accumulate large quantities of pesticides. A climate change, have significantly degraded the number of countries in the region, Tunisia area’s land and its unique agro-biodiversity. included, supported by the World Bank and the Under the overall management of the National Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Center for Agricultural Research and Extension developed a regional GEF project to prevent (NCARE), a semi-autonomous institution under further accumulation, support clean-up, and Ministry of Agriculture, the project will work in facilitate the destruction on these stockpiles. three “poverty pockets” in the Badia, with the objective of supporting sustainable livelihoods Tunisia: Promoting Best Practices for Managing and enhancing ecosystem services through Healthcare Waste and Polychlorinated Biphenyls participatory approaches. (PCBs) (2011–2017) - With the assistance of the World Bank, the Government of Tunisia recently Morocco: Investing in Social and Integrated embarked on a new project that will work to Agriculture (2013–2017) - The Social and improve both the global environmental impact Integrated Agriculture Project will attempt and the national public health in Tunisia related demonstrating that it is possible to improve to PCBs and healthcare waste management. It small farmers’ livelihoods while protecting will do so by strengthening the institutional and natural ecosystems, thus breaking the cycle of management capacity of all relevant agencies in poverty on marginal lands. The project will pilot the waste management arena. land and biodiversity conservation measures in parallel with investments of the Plan Maroc Vert A Multi-Focal Area Approach—Addressing in the Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz and Souss- Land Degradation3: Massa-Draa regions. Algeria: Improved Desert Ecosystems and Climate Resilient Oases - The Algeria Improved Desert Contact MNA K&L: Ecosystems and Climate Resilient Oases project Gerard A. Byam, Director, Strategy and (ALG-DELP) will demonstrate how ongoing Operations. MENA Region, The World Bank government agriculture and rural development Preeti S. Ahuja, Manager, MNADE programs can benefit from climate change Regional Quick Notes Team: mitigation and adaptation, soil and water Omer Karasapan and Roby Fields Tel #: (202) 473 8177 conservation, and income diversification. The MNA Quick Notes are intended to summarize lessons learned from MNA and other Bank Knowledge and Learning activities. The Notes do not necessarily 3 The MENA region is home to two of the world’s largest reflect the views of the World Bank, its board or its desert ecosystems, the Sahara and the Arabian desert. These member countries. ecosystems make possible a unique set of conditions that are vital to the livelihoods of their inhabitants. Yet many desert biomes are stressed by growing natural and man-made pressures. The recently developed MENA-Desert Ecosystems and Livelihoods Program (MENA-DELP), a partnership between the World Bank, GEF, and a group of MENA Countries, addresses these challenges through a multi-focal area approach. The program aims to enhance desert ecosystem livelihoods by harnessing their value in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, and optimizing the use of desert goods and services. It takes a cohesive regional approach in which the goals of individual projects are both embedded within national strategies and linked to overall regional objectives. November 2013 · Number 109 · 4