The Seventh Assembly of the GEF

The Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility will be held from August 22-26 in Vancouver, Canada to bring together ministers, government officials, business leaders, environmentalists, leaders of international agencies and environmental conventions along with representatives of youth groups, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples to discuss solutions to ensure a healthy planet with healthy people. 

UNIDO is co-organizing the following side events during the Assembly:

GEF Assembly Side Event 1

“BEST PRACTICES IN EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN GEF PROJECTS - CONVERSATION AMONG BENEFICIARY VOICES, IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES, GOVERNMENTS” - AUGUST 22, 15:00-16:30

Co-leads: UNIDO, DBSA, with support from the GEF Secretariat and the Academic Peasant Unit “Tiahuanacu” of the Bolivian Catholic University. 

The side event aims to provide insights on the opportunities, challenges, lessons learnt, and best practices related to strengthening women’s agency and gender mainstreaming in GEF projects design and implementation. It will provide an opportunity for the panelist to expound on concrete examples of gender-related perspectives and results from projects and programmes, on how projects have considered gender-related issues from design to implementation and how gender equity and empowerment is fostered once the project is completed. It will provide a venue for both beneficiaries and implementing agencies to discuss: How the GEF projects have helped to increase women’s participation, lead and benefits? What are the changes that the projects have brought about in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment? How did the project do this? How does gender mainstreaming advance in GEF projects? What are the key current challenges and the key messages of hope? 

 

GEF Assembly Side Event 5

“DRIVING A JUST HYDROGEN TRANSITION: KEY ENABLERS FOR CLEAN HYDROGEN UPTAKE AND DE-RISKING OF INVESTMENTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND TRANSITION ECONOMIES”, 22 AUGUST 2023, 15:00 – 16:30

This event aims to present UNIDO – World Bank Global Clean Hydrogen Programme’s objective of enhancing national institutional capacities, enabling policy frameworks, and improving technological readiness and financial mechanisms. 

The event will address: 

  • Enablers for the production and local application of hydrogen in developing countries 

  • Enablers for the de-risking of hydrogen projects. 
     

GEF Assembly Side Event 2

“ENGAGEMENT OF INDUSTRY IN THE GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK”, 23 AUGUST 2023, 09:00 – 10:30

The objective of the side event is to provide the international community with inputs on the biodiversity-industry nexus and on how to mainstream biodiversity considerations in industry and productive activities. Furthermore, the event will seek to identify the innovative actions needed to ensure transformative and sustainable progress in the field of biodiversity conservation and industrial development, as stressed by Target 14, 15 and 16 of the GBF. In particular, the side event will deepen three key aspects: 

  • Relevance of policies and norms to guide business decisions 

  • Need to harmonize methodologies for monitoring and assessing impact on biodiversity from business practices 

  • Access to knowledge and examples that could inspire new business models 
     

GEF Assembly Side Event 3

“ACCELERATING INNOVATION AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN CLIMATE ADAPTATION”, 23 AUGUST 2023, 11:00 – 12:30

The session will bring together key stakeholders in climate adaptation that include private companies, investors, civil society, entrepreneurs and members of the GEF partnership to discuss how to accelerate innovation and private investment in climate change adaptation in developing countries. This event will also showcase some projects funded under the GEF Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation. Discussions will particularly focus on three themes identified as key: SMEs incubation and acceleration; investment funds; and metrics and standards for climate adaptation risk management and opportunity assessment. 

 

GEF Assembly Side Event 4

“HARNESSING THE POWER OF CLEANTECH ECOSYSTEMS TO TACKLE THE COMPLEX CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE”, 23 AUGUST 2023; 13:00 – 14:30

In line with the GEF priorities and to highlight the comprehensive approach towards climate mitigation through cleantech innovation support, UNIDO convenes relevant ecosystem stakeholders within the GEF 7th Assembly side event to meet the following objectives:   

  • Exchanging best practices and practical recommendations on how to enable the development of national cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that can systematically support and scale homegrown cleantech solutions for climate impact.  

  • Sharing lessons and success stories of cleantech enterprises supported by UNIDO through GCIP and PFAN towards de-risking and commercialization & highlighting how the ecosystem support contributes to the success of cleantech enterprises.  

  • Highlighting UNIDO knowledge products developed under the GCIP ecosystem strengthening component and showcasing the approaches and outputs of other