The global environment facility in its North‐South context

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Abstract
This article analyses the controversy around the Global Environment Facility established by the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. The criticisms of representatives of non‐governmental organisations and diplomats from developing countries have been studied and appear to relate to three different levels: at the lowest level, they relate to the interpretation of the different issues in the GEF documents; at the next level, to the institutional context in which the GEF is based; and, at the highest level they concern the deeper problems of North‐South relations and power asymmetries. All three levels influence each other, and the basic reluctance of the developing countries to accept the role of the GEF as the operating entity for the financial mechanism to implement Agenda 21 and the different environmental conventions stems from the middle and higher levels. This article analyses the criticisms and draws some inferences about how the power asymmetries can be dealt with.

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