World Bank Development Market Place - Funding Innovative Development Ideas to Benefit the Global Environment

The primary purpose of the DM is to help fund projects that provide local innovative solutions to development problems that have the potential to expand from a local level to address the problem on a global scale. The aim of this proposed MSP project is to expand the pool of funding available for bottom-up innovative projects with global environmental benefits applying to DM for funding. This can substantially assist GEF in meeting its own program objectives by providing a way to reach grassroots social innovators cost-effectively and by finding new ideas with potential to make a substantial difference in the efforts to conserve biodiversity and arrest climate change. More specifically, using the proceeds of the MSP to fund these sub- projects would contribute to GEF’s strategic priorities in biodiversity and climate change in a number of ways:1.Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in production landscapes and sectors. Experience from these demonstration projects can help inform development of market incentive measures and other metrics of market-based approaches to sustainability in threatened biodiversity areas.2.Helping catalyze sustainability of protected areas by funding initiatives targeting community or indigenous groups, removing barriers to public-private partnerships, and ensuring preservation of livelihoods in areas adjacent to protected biodiversity areas in order to reduce conflict over land use.3.Mitigating climate change through productive uses of renewable energy (e.g., water pumping, lighting for schools and clinics, power for agro-industries, etc.)4.In addition to providing seed funding for these pilot projects, DM works with each grantee to ensure that success stories and lessons learned are linked back to World Bank operations as well as other donor agencies in a effort to cross-fertilize promising ideas in other countries.