Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

3 Introduction

This is the Final Report on the Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and GRID-Arendal for the period 2012-2013 (the ‘biennium’). The Final Report provides an overview of the 2012-2013 programme delivery and highlights the results that have been achieved during the biennium. A detailed financial report is also included.

effects of GRID-Arendal’s work under the PCA fall into one of three categories along the results chain: outputs are the direct products and services generated by programme activities; outcomes are the effects that these products and services have on the target group; and impacts are the long-term changes, or improvements that occur in society or in the state of the environment.

In line with the principles and terminology laid out in NORAD’s guide on Results Based Management, 5 the

5. Results Management in Norwegian Development Cooperation: A practical guide. NORAD on behalf of Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (December 2008).

4 Scope and context

During 2013, GRID-Arendal has further developed its strat- egy 6 for the next 4 years. Our mission is to support environ- mentally sustainable development through UNEP and other partners by communicating information that strengthens en- vironmental management capacity and motivates decision- makers to act . And our vision is a society that understands, values and protects the environment on which it depends . GRID-Arendal’s overall strategic directions are, amongst others, to: • Focus on building a portfolio of larger, long-termprojects. • Strengthen our support to environmental conventions and cross-border cooperation. • Support the world’s transition to a ‘green economy. • Increase cooperation with other UN organisations in fulfilling the goals of the Rio+20 process. In order to focus on larger long-term projects during the biennium 2012/2013, GRID-Arendal went through a pro- cess with UNEP to get involved in larger projects financed significantly by the World Bank through its Global Environ- ment Facility (GEF). This entailed both the opportunity to use the funds under the agreement with MFA as “seed” funds for the delivery of a larger programme, but also for complicated processes and risks we had to take into ac- count (see chapter on lessons learnt).

Increasingly, GRID-Arendal’s work involves environmental conventions and thereby contributes to cross-boundary co-operation. Good examples are the Tehran Convention for the protection of the Caspian sea and the Abidjan Con- vention, UNEP’s Regional Seas agreement of West-African states. Increasingly GRID-Arendal supports projects related to “green economy”, one of the key agendas of UNEP, and uses its communication and facilitation competences in related fields such as “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB). Rio+20 and the outcome document “The Future we Want” became an important framework guiding GRID-Arendal’s strategic planning during the last biennium. Strengthen- ing the environmental dimension of sustainable develop- ment and thereby UNEP and the co-operation among UN- organisations on environmental fields has always been a goal for the work of GRID-Arendal. While the Final Report focuses on the work programme spec- ified under the MFA PCA, the overview of programme deliv- ery also summarizes the work undertaken by GRID-Arendal beyond the Agreement (such as Polar-related activities). This is done to show the close integration within and across the programme areas and the co-benefits that derive from shar- ing knowledge, skills and partners between projects.

6. Annex 2: GRID-Arendal strategy directions 2014 - 2017

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