ISLAMABAD, Feb. 27: State Minister for Environment Tahir Iqbal on Friday called for lowering the criteria to enable the developing countries like Pakistan to optimally benefit from the resources available under the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

He was speaking at a workshop on "Global Environment Facility: Ongoing Projects, New Strategies and the Way Forward" organised jointly by the Ministry of Environment and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Planning officials of the provincial governments and representatives of the NGOs attended the workshop.

Pakistan, like other developing countries, was handicapped by the lack of adequate technical expertise to conceptualise and formulate projects for tackling the serious challenges posed to their well-being by the environmental degradation, the minister pointed out.

He said the problem of stringent criteria was particularly pertinent in view of the new framework that had recently been prescribed by the GEF for allocation of its resources. To meet that challenge we will have to ensure effective utilization of resources to be in a position to secure more GEF-funded projects," he remarked.

Agreeing with a speaker on monitoring of every project as its core feature, the minister stressed the need for an independent agency to evaluate and watch over the implementation of development works by the NGOs.

The GEF since its creation in 1991, he observed, had allocated $4.5 billion in grants to support more than 1,300 projects in 140 developing countries and the countries in economic transition.

In addition, it has committed approximately $117.35 million in small grants to the NGOs and community groups in these countries, involving them directly in addressing the global environmental problems.

Pakistan has pledged a sum of $12 million to the GEF resources to beef up their efforts, he said. It had completed with GEF assistance a number of major studies and projects, focusing on various disciplines like climate change, biodiversity, ozone layer protection etc.

The minister particularly mentioned the Pakistan Initial National Communication (INC) which had been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last November with GEF assistance.

Besides, the Pakistan EPA was implementing a project on Enabling Activity for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which will reveal the level of dangerous POPs in Pakistan.

Noting that the environment ministry had so far secured a total portfolio funding to the tune of $32 million, he remarked that Pakistan would avail itself of the funding facility on a much larger scale, provided adequate capacity for project formulation was available at national and provincial levels.

He hoped that the current workshop would enable the participants to know the GEF criteria as well as the new initiatives for preparing new projects in these vital areas.

Earlier, Ms Lena Lindberg, the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, said the GEF, which was launched initially to support only two conventions, i.e. UN Conventions on Climate Change and Biodiversity, was now working on implementation of two additional conventions which were the Stockholm Convention on POPS and UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

"This brings immense opportunities for developing countries like Pakistan to tap the GEF resources for environmental management in these areas," she remarked.

Appreciating that the Government of Pakistan had included "environmental management" in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the UNDP official hoped that it would put forth environment management as one of its priority areas in the forthcoming "Pakistan Development Forum" to be held next month.

She also emphasized the need for nurturing partnerships with and between the government institutions, business sectors civil society organisations, communities, trade unions, media and other leaders in their own spheres.