The series consists of records related to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF was a three-year pilot program begun in 1991 to provide grants and low interest loans to developing countries for programs to relieve pressures on global ecosystems. The Facility was a co-operative venture among national governments, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In April 1992, GEF participants agreed that its structure should be modified, and at a subsequent meeting in December of that year in Abidjan the participants requested an independent evaluation of the Pilot Phase.

Correspondence regarding discussions held within the Bank regarding the GEF independent evaluation of the Pilot Phase are part of the series, including minutes of a January 25, 1993, meeting on the topic convened by the Chief, Infrastructure and Energy Division (OEDD3) at which ENVGE (Global Environment Facility Administration) was represented. Drafts of the Terms of Reference (TOR) to be presented at a GEF meeting in Rome on March 4-5, 1993, are part of the series. Drafts of the Inception Memorandum for the independent evaluation, the Inception Report, and the Terms of Reference prepared after the Rome meeting are also part of the series. Most of these records were prepared following a March 12, 1993, meeting attended by the Deputy Director of UNDP's Central Evaluation Office (CEO), the Chief of OEDD3, and an OEDD3 consultant (John Malone). Establishment of an Independent Panel of Experts for the GEF evaluation was discussed at this meeting. Copies of letters of invitation extended to individuals selected to serve on the panel are part of the series.

Memoranda, paper copies of electronic and facsimile messages, correspondence, newspaper articles, and news releases in the series document the work of the Independent Panel of Experts (Independent Evaluation Panel [IEP]) and the three Evaluation Managers (Robert Picciotto - DGO, World Bank, Gus Edgren - UNDP, and Nay Htun -UNEP) responsible for conduct of the evaluation. Also documented are the managers' contacts with the Chairperson of IEP (Dr. Alvaro Umata), the principal evaluators (Jim Kelly - UNDP, Andrea Matte-Bakers, and Stjepan Keckes - UNEP, John Malone - World Bank), and the Evaluation Staff Coordinator (W. Haven North - World Bank).

The series includes: the final Inception Memorandum; work plan outline and budget for the evaluation; agendas, discussion papers, and minutes of meetings of the IEP and of GEF participants; copies of the questionnaires distributed to GEF participants as part of the evaluation; a draft Project Evaluation Form (PEF) consisting of a summary of questionnaire responses; and the interim and final reports of the evaluation. A copy of Global Environment Facility-The Pilot Phase and Beyond, Working Paper Series, Number I, May 1992, contains the text on the restructuring of the GEF approved by participating governments on April 30, 1992. Also in the series is the July 20, 1993, Back-to-Office report of Hideki Mori (OEDD3), of a GEF evaluation mission to Japan, Thailand, and Lao People's Democratic Republic from June 16 to July 5, 1993.