Third Call for Proposals: GEF-8 Blended Finance Global Program

The GEF-8 blended finance program seeks proposals that would meet one or more following criteria but not limited to:

• support innovation at the forefront of investments in nature and climate: including biodiversity, land degradation neutrality, climate-smart agriculture, new climate technologies and deforestation-free food systems, while integrating climate resilience, and nature-based solutions;
• test new financial instruments under the GEF-8 NGI Policy, such as convertible instruments, contingent instruments linked to environmental performance, political risk insurance and liquidity facilities;
• expand participation of SIDS and LDCs in the blended finance window;
• support the structuring of new asset classes, investment and aggregation platforms to reach scale and issuance of securities in capital markets linked to nature or climate goals;
• support investment in MSMEs striving to enhance sustainable sourcing of value chains.

Proposals that are technically cleared and selected under this call will be considered for the Work Program at the 67 th Council Meeting of the GEF in June 2024. Additional calls for proposals may be issued during GEF-8 until full programming of the available resources for the GEF-8 Blended Finance Global Program.

Financial Terms of Non-Grant Instruments

• The maximum financing amount per project/program is USD 15 million. In exceptional cases innovative proposals with the potential to demonstrate impact at scale may request funding exceeding USD 15 million. An initial list of non-grant instruments for blended finance includes: (i) debt, (ii) risk mitigation products (credit and performance guarantees, structured finance, and others); (iii) equity instruments; or (iv) contingent and convertible instruments or as noted in GEF policy.
• The maximum maturity of the financing is 20 years but in equity investments, there may be flexibility on the exit date. For a full explanation of financial terms see the GEF NGI Policy.

Eligibility Criteria

Proposals must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the Blended Finance Program financing:

• Alignment with GEF-8 Programming Directions in the respective Focal Areas
• Geography: project beneficiaries must be in eligible GEF recipient countries
• Compliance with GEF Agency eligibility requirements as defined under the GEF Blended Finance Global Program and Updated Policy, including the necessary experience and existence of internal processes to assess and manage non-grant instruments requested from the GEF. Compliance with co-financing, co-investment requirements, additional safeguards, strengthened due diligence, and strengthened reflow reporting by implementing executing entities may be required
• Modalities: medium-sized projects, full-sized projects and programs. Medium-sized projects can be submitted on a rolling basis outside the calls for proposals.
• Capacity to report reflows by Agencies as defined in the Reflow Reporting Section of the GEF Blended Finance Global Program and Updated Policy.

For more information, visit Global Environment Facility (GEF).