Ukraine and the Global Environment Facility (GEF): macro-financial aspects of cooperation

Authors: Valerii Dmytrenko, Taisiia Kryvenko, Ania Ostapenko

For more than three decades, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has financed projects to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. Ukraine receives mostly grants from it, but the GEF does not transfer them to the government directly: projects are run by GEF Agencies such as UNDP, FAO, UNEP and the EBRD. We look at how many GEF projects Ukraine has, what its co-financing ratio means and how civil society organisations can take part in this system.

What is the GEF and how much has it financed?

The GEF describes itself as the largest public funder for the environment. It serves as the financial mechanism for six international environmental conventions, works through 18 Agencies, and its main governing body is a 32-member Council.

The GEF’s money comes from donor countries’ contributions. The fund is replenished every four years, and each cycle has its own number. GEF-8 ended in June 2026, and GEF-9 runs from July 2026 to June 2030 with a programming level of $3.9 billion.

The GEF finances projects in the following areas:

• biodiversity;
• climate change: mitigation and adaptation;
• chemicals and waste;
• international waters;
• land degradation;
• integrated programmes that combine several areas.

Independent scientific advice comes from the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP). Its scientists advise the GEF on how to base investments on the best available evidence and track emerging issues in these areas.

How does GEF money reach Ukraine?

Six GEF Agencies currently work in Ukraine: the EBRD, FAO, the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP and UNIDO. The Agency prepares the project together with the government and partners, selects executing partners and reports to the GEF. That is why the reporting and procurement requirements for an implementer in Ukraine are set by the Agency running the project. We covered how to prepare documents and correspondence for a foreign donor in a separate article.

Ukraine is represented in the GEF by two national focal points at the Ministry of Economy and Environment of Ukraine:

• Political Focal Point - Yegor Perelygin, Deputy Minister of Economy and Environment of Ukraine, focal point since 3 March 2026. Responsible for GEF governance and policy issues and for liaison with the constituency in the Council.
• Operational Focal Point - Olha Yushkevych, focal point since 11 November 2025. Supports projects and oversees the GEF portfolio in Ukraine.

Every project requesting GEF funding must have a Letter of Endorsement signed by the Operational Focal Point. The letter confirms that the project is in line with national priorities and has been discussed with the stakeholders concerned. That is why any conversation about a national GEF project starts at the ministry.

In the GEF Council, Ukraine belongs to a constituency of 12 countries together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Serbia. The constituency has one Council member and one alternate; at present these are Moldova and North Macedonia.

How many GEF projects does Ukraine have?

These projects are financed by the GEF’s main fund, the GEF Trust Fund. Data from Ukraine’s profile on the GEF website; the last column shows how much co-financing there is per dollar of grant:

How to read these figures:

• GEF financing (exactly $75,245,564 and $382,754,273) is the GEF’s own money: grants, Agency fees and other GEF payments. Co-financing is not included.
• Active projects are approved projects that have not yet been marked as completed in the GEF database. The 14 national projects include one approved in 2008, so this is not a list of what is being implemented right now.
• Amounts for regional and global projects cover all participating countries. The GEF does not show Ukraine’s share separately, so $382.8 million should not be read as money that came to Ukraine. The largest items here are global tranches of the Small Grants Programme.

Ukraine does not use two funds of the GEF family. The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) serves only countries in this UN category, and Ukraine has no projects under the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

What does a co-financing ratio of 7.31 mean?

By our calculation from the GEF project database, the 14 national projects have $492.3 million of co-financing for $67.4 million of grants. That is where the ratio of 7.31 comes from. In regional and global projects involving Ukraine the ratio is lower, at 2.04.

The spread between projects is wide. The largest grant at the moment is the World Bank’s $11.8 million for hazardous waste management, with $47.2 million of co-financing planned. An EBRD project to create a market for renewable power, approved in 2008, planned $106.5 million of co-financing on an $8.45 million grant.

For a hromada or an organisation preparing a GEF project, the practical conclusion is this: the grant covers only part of the budget, and the rest has to come from other sources. Co-financing can also be in kind, such as equipment or partners’ laboratory or engineering time.

What does the GEF currently finance in Ukraine?

• Hazardous waste: PCBs, mercury, asbestos. World Bank, $11.8 million grant, approved on 15.06.2026.
• Resilient Ukrainian Forest Landscapes. FAO, $5.4 million grant, concept approved on 19.12.2025, preparation under way.
• Protected areas network in the Ukrainian Carpathians. UNEP, $3.6 million grant, concept approved on 24.07.2025.
• Biodiversity in road planning, Kyiv - Chop highway. UNEP, executed by WWF-Ukraine, $2.3 million grant, approved on 11.08.2025.

Forests affected by the war

According to sector estimates cited by FAO and the government, about 2.9 million hectares of Ukraine’s forests have been damaged or degraded by fires, shelling, explosive ordnance and pollution. This is an estimate of the war’s impact, not a measured area of destroyed forest.

The FAO project is meant to restore forests at the level of whole landscapes. Under the concept, the work will take place in accessible areas less affected by the war and will cover at least 9,700 ha of forest and 1,000 ha of shelterbelts. The GEF grant is $5.4 million, with $42.6 million of co-financing planned. Project preparation was launched with an inception workshop on 21 April 2026.

Biodiversity and roads

On 15 May 2024, WWF-Ukraine announced the preparation of the project “Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Upstream Planning of Linear Transport Infrastructure in Ukraine”. It is part of the GEF global programme on greening transportation infrastructure led by WWF-US. The GEF Agency for the Ukrainian project is UNEP, and the executing partner is WWF-Ukraine.

In August 2025 the project was approved for 48 months. It provides for mapping eight pilot sites along the Kyiv - Chop highway in the Carpathians and Polissia, where the road crosses animal migration routes, and for recommendations on how to keep these corridors intact. WWF names ecoducts, wildlife overpasses above the highway, among the most effective solutions. In June 2026, WWF-Ukraine began field research.

The GEF-9 allocation

Projects in biodiversity, climate change and land degradation are financed from the STAR allocation: under this system, the GEF distributes money among countries for each cycle. For GEF-9 Ukraine has been allocated $9,060,258, and in this cycle the money can be moved freely between the three areas. As of 7 October 2026, nothing from the allocation has been used yet. We looked at how Ukraine’s allocations changed from GEF-4 to GEF-9 in the second article in this series.

How can a civil society organisation work with the GEF?

1. Small Grants Programme (SGP). Provides grants of up to $50,000 directly to communities and civil society organisations. The programme is funded by the GEF and implemented by UNDP. It has worked in Ukraine since 2010, and according to the programme it has supported 187 projects worth $8.5 million here.
2. GEF SGP CSO Challenge. Launched by IUCN and RTI International in June 2026 at the GEF Assembly in Samarkand. Organisations with proven environmental solutions can receive up to $300,000. The first call was announced for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
3. Partnership in an Agency project. An organisation becomes an executing partner or co-implementer of a UNDP, FAO, UNEP or other Agency project, or provides co-financing, including in kind.
4. GEF CSO Network. The network has existed since 1995, and its members take part in GEF Council meetings and in consultations on the fund’s policies. It is open to environmental organisations working in at least one GEF area. An application includes a letter from the head of the organisation, annual and financial reports, proof of registration, experience of taking part in GEF projects or events over three years, and recommendations from GEF Agencies or network members. Membership is granted for five years.

Our fund chose the second entry point. On 7 August 2026 we submitted the concept of the LIVING WATERS project to the GEF SGP CSO Challenge: a request of $300,000, with $70,000 of partners’ in-kind co-financing. We described the model behind the application in the article “Who collects data on water in the community when an expert can’t make it there?”. We show how the application is progressing on the project page.

GEF data are given according to the GEF website as of 07.10.2026; amounts are in US dollars. We calculated the grant and co-financing totals for national projects from the GEF project database. This material is for information only: our fund is not a GEF Agency and does not allocate GEF funds.