Portfolio Study of UNEP's Recent Work on GEF-funded Sustainable Land Management

The primary purpose of this portfolio review is to extract added value from the learning potential of project level evaluations by considering the performance of a group of projects addressing a similar theme (SLM) from the perspective of a set of overarching questions (which in this instance were derived from the 2021 Desktop Portfolio Review). By presenting learning that draws on a number of thematically linked projects, it is hoped to also identify an audience within UNEP that has an interest in taking the common learning further in their project design work. In short, this review is looking at a cross-section of the portfolio of UNEP’s GEF-funded work on SLM. What do we see when we look at this portfolio of work? The aim is to highlight this. Most notably, to look at these evaluations as a whole, learn from them, highlight these learnings and commonalities and provide practical guidance for, specifically, the Biodiversity (BD) and Land Degradation (LD) Unit, and its Land Degradation (LD) Sub-Unit for improving the design and implementation of GEF-8 projects. It also aims to provide guidance and learning as to where UNEP’s comparative advantage is within the realm of Land Degradation Neutrality targets and GEF-8 programming priorities, as well as improved alignment to these and UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTS, 2022-2025) priorities.