What is the Small Grants Programme?

For almost two decades, the Small Grants Programme (SGP) has been working with communities around the world to combat the most critical environmental problems and has successfully demonstrated that supporting communities in their efforts to achieve more sustainable livelihoods is not only possible, but extremely important in bringing change and achieving global environmental benefits.

With presence in 122 countries and more than 12,000 grants awarded worldwide, SGP supports projects of non-governmental and community-based organizations in developing countries demonstrating that community action can maintain the fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives.

The main focal areas of the programme are climate change abatement and adaptation, conservation of biodiversity, protection of international waters, reduction of the impact of persistent organic pollutants and prevention of land degradation

The programme is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as a corporate programme, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the GEF partnership, and executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). To date the program funding from the GEF is approximately US$401 million. In addition, the program has raised US$407 million from other partners in cash or in-kind equivalents.

Why is it important?

The SGP is rooted in the belief that global environmental problems can best be addressed if local people are involved and there are direct community benefits and ownership. The programme is convinced that with small amounts of funding, members of local communities can undertake activities that will make a significant difference in their lives and environments. This lies in contrast with top-down, expert-reliant developmentinterventions. With a presence in 122 countries and with more than 11,000 grants being awarded worldwide, SGP supports projects of non-governmental and community-based organizations (CBOs) in developing countries demonstrating that community action can maintain the fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives.

In Iran, the voluntary National Steering Committee (NSC) comprised of well known environmentalists, representatives of civil society and academic institutions, researchers and the government provides the major substantive contribution to and oversight of the programme. The NSC is responsible for developing a country programme strategy, reviewing whether proposals for grants are feasible and meet SGP criteria and considering the kind of technical support that is needed for a project’s implementation. The NSC is thus responsible for not only the final approval of grants but also undertaking site visits, reviewing and advising on the design of grant proposals, ensuring monitoring and evaluation and supporting SGP in the national fora.

What is our goal?

SGP channels financial and technical support directly to civil society and community based organizations for activities that aim to deliver global environmental benefits in the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) focal areas, which are:

The SGP is funded by the GEF as a corporate programme, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the GEF partnership, and executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). To date the programme has globally received approximately US$ 451 million in funding from GEF and has in addition raised US$ 387 million from other partners in cash or in-kind equivalents.

The SGP was founded in Iran in 2001 as the 54th country joining the programme and is currently in its fifth operational phase. It provides grants mainly up to US$ 25,000 to CBOs and civil society organizations (CSOs) to empower and encourage local communities for protecting areas of global significance in the country such as the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Zagros Mountain region and the Touran Biosphere Reserve. By 2009 over 150 projects have been approved and nearly US$ 3 million have been allocated.

What have we achieved?

The programme has over the past years introduced field pilots where participatory planning, action research, local funds and alternative livelihoods have been exercised in order to bring about change at the community level and influence national policies to address challenges of environmental degradation.

Raising awareness

SGP has reached more than 30,000 people and contributed to the production of over 70,000 outreach materials such as books, booklets, manuals, monitoring tools and puzzles. Almost every project has produced a film, a newsletter, a brochure and a booklet. These have been shared with decision makers andlocalcommunitiesin order toincrease their awareness about the state of the present situation and the long-term impacts of environmental degradation.

CBOs and CSOs

Over the past few years the SGP has worked to strengthen existing capacities of CBOs and CSOs across the country. This has amongst others resulted in the development of more specialized organizations that are increasingly applying participatory approaches in their projects while actively following up on environmental policies. The contribution of these small projects has resulted amongst others in the formation of Integrated Pest Management(IPM)committees at the governmentallevel, the temporary legalization of traditional forestry methods in Zagros Oak Forests in Kordistan, the development of joint pilots with the Government of Iran on participatory pasture land management and a review of the National Ecotourism Plan.
The programme has also used local knowledge to develop community friendly technologies. One such example is the construction and monitoring of artificialreef pyramids, used for the rehabilitation of marine resources on Qeshm Island.

Participatory Conservation

Socio-economic factors have been identified as one of the main threats to endangered wildlife. The best approach for the conservation and protection of wildlife is thus to involve local communities in order to strengthen a sense of ownership and ensuring the sustainability of an intervention.

The first participatory conservation site in Iran where people took an active role in conservation was developed through the SGP and was formed to save the Hawksbill turtle on Qeshm Island in 2003. Over the next five years the project helped over 60,000 baby Hawksbill turtles join the blue waters of the Persian Gulf. Out of the 51 globally endangered or vulnerable wildlife species found in Iran, the programme is working on 9 including the Persian Leopard, the Houbara Bustard, the White-Headed Duck and the Euphraticus Soft-Shell Turtles.

From 2004 onward the efforts of the local communities of Sironguli, which is part of the sister wetlands of Uromiyeh Lake, have helped bring back the lake to life after it had faced complete dryness. As a result of the communities’ hard work many migratory birds, such as Flamingoes have returned to the site.In 2008 on the World Wetlands Day the SGP project, Rehabilitation of the Sirangoli and Hassanlou Ramsar Site Wetlands through Community Participation received the National Wetland’s Champion Award as one of the most successful experiences related to optimized preservation of wetland ecosystems and promotion of wetlands preservation culture in the country.

The SGP has also collaborated with medium and large size projects of UNDP and GEF in Iran such as the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah and the Siberian Crane, the Wetlands and others to raise awareness, promote community education and participation, increase the number of volunteer game guards and enhance the public’s respect for environmental game guards.

In the area of climate change the SGP has worked on promoting public and semi-public transportation alternatives. In schools the use of certified taxis has helped to reduce the number of private cars. The programme has also supported the Automated Controlled Heating Systems which helps save from 20 to 40 percent of gas usage in buildings. Currently over 5,000 of these systems have been installed and are in operation. The SGP supports the training of maintainers to adopt this system and promote its use among municipalities and professional engineering and vocational associations.

For more information about the Small Grants Programme please click here.

If you wish to know more about the ongoing SGP projects in Iran, please click here.

NATIONAL MDG FOCUS

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Ensure environmental sustainability

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Project Title:

Small Grants Programme (SGP)

Location:

Nationwide

Duration:

Start Date

2001

Implementing Partner:

CSOs, CBOs and independent environmentalists

Project Status:

Ongoing

UNDP Program Staff:

Ms. Laleh Daraie

Key Stakeholders

• National and Provincial Natural Resource Organisations;
• Municipalities;
• Department of Environment (DOE);
• Ministry of Agriculture Jihad;
• Ministry of Education;
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
• Ministry of Interior.