The Small Grants Programme helps tackle climate change, conserve biodiversity, protect shared water resources, reduce the impact of persistent pollutants such as DDT, and prevent land degradation. Besides benefitting the environment, SGP projects also work to generate sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty in the world’s poorest areas.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is responsible for developing overall SGP policy and plans. On behalf of UNDP, UNOPS ensures that SGP projects are delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner.

UNOPS has supported SGP since its inception in 1992. In that time UNOPS has executed more than 9,000 grants in 104 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Financial management

Careful financial management is crucial for successful project delivery. With years of professional experience in managing project finances, UNOPS administers SGP budgets and reports on SGP funds in accordance with UNDP and UNOPS financial rules and regulations. By using Atlas, an enterprise resource planning tool, UNOPS can provide regular reports on expenditures to stakeholders.

Human resources

UNOPS handles recruitment and contract administration for 200 SGP project staff and consultants around the world in accordance with stringent UNOPS human resources rules and regulations.

Legal advice

Its network of legal experts makes UNOPS well-equipped to advise on legal and ethical matters pertaining to contracts with non-governmental and civil society organizations and country programme grant allocations.

Procurement

UNOPS has more than 15 years of procurement experience and can source goods ranging from office equipment to farming machinery, and a wide variety of services. Detailed product knowledge combined with sophisticated understanding of the global market ensures that UNOPS procures items quickly and to specification. By purchasing on a global scale UNOPS enjoys leverage with vendors that yields competitive prices for its clients. For SGP, UNOPS procures services from non-governmental organizations that provide administrative support to national SGP teams.



Operational inputs and training

UNOPS contributes to SGP strategies, operational guidelines and database development and trains SGP personnel on operational matters.

Client satisfaction

As a United Nations organization UNOPS is committed to the highest levels of accountability and transparency. In addition, UNOPS constantly reviews its processes and updates its standard operating procedures to ensure project success and client satisfaction.

An independent review undertaken by the GEF Evaluation Office in 2007 reported that SGP is "very successful" and "cost-effective" and lauded the Programme’s decentralized decision-making approach as an effective way of reaching remote communities.