On February 23, 2022, the Executive Secretariat of the Consortium of African Funds for Environment (CAFE) held a virtual meeting of the ESMS working group, in which CAFE members participated. FAPBM presented the progress of the development of its ESMS, started in early 2021, on this occasion.
The ESMS declares the environmental and social safeguard commitments and principles of FAPBM to ensure that the negative environmental and social impacts of projects funded by FAPBM are avoided or, if unavoidable, minimized and properly mitigated. It also includes an operational guide (at the level of the Foundation and PA managers, the system for managing complaints, grievances and complaints, the risks of funding impacts, environmental and social standards, and monitoring and evaluation of the system).
The 2nd presentation of the meeting was made by Biofund from Mozambique, entitled « avoiding trouble : a scaled approach to an ESMS (Environmental and Social Risk Management System) for use by CTF (Conservation Trust Fund) ». He referred to the need for an environmental fund to have an ESMS, especially those seeking accreditation from GCF and GEF.
This working group will continue discussions on the ESMS and its implementation this year 2022 and will propose the results of these discussions to the CAFÉ General Assembly in October 2022. This working group is part of the BRIDGE project, which aims to involve the private sector in the funding of PAs.
