The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio
de Janeiro, 1992 marked a major milestone in the global process towards sustainable
development. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has established a funding
window specifically for enabling activities that prepare the foundation to design
and implement effective response measures to achieve the Rio Convention objectives.
These projects are executed at national level in collaboration with one of the
three GEF Implementing Agencies (the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank).
The National Capacity Self Assessment (NCSA) is a type of enabling activity
with the primary objective to identify country level priorities and needs for
capacity building to address global environmental issues, in particular in the
field of biological diversity, climate change, and land degradation, with the
aim of catalyzing action to meet those needs in a coordinated and planned manner.
While these three thematic areas are central to the exercise, it is fully recognized
that NCSAs will need to explore the synergies among them, as well as place these
concerns into the context of sustainable development.
In Hungary CEEweb is the national executing agency for NCSA in close cooperation
and under the control of the Ministry of Environment and Water. The project
is financed through UNEP/GEF.
