At the 51st GEF Council Meeting (October 25-27, 2016) the GEF approved the Global Opportunities for Long-term Development of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Sector (ASGM) programme - "GEF GOLD" (GEFSEC ID: 9602) for a grant amount of 45,262,295 US$ and co-financing of 135,174,956 US$. The GEF GOLD is a programmatic approach involving three UN agencies (UNDP, UNEP, and UNIDO) and one NGO (Conservation International). 

The main objective of the programme is to reduce mercury releases from ASGM practices through the introduction and promotion of best practices and techniques for gold extraction. The programme aims to support ASGM communities in eight countries and has the potential to reduce mercury use and thus mercury releases by a total of 369 tones.

The GOLD programme consists of one GEF GOLD Global project implemented by UNEP, entitled "Global knowledge management and sharing project which has the objective to unify the efforts of all the GEF GOLD child projects to provide needed technical Information, promote exchange of information and engage in stakeholder outreach.

In addition, the GEF GOLD programme consists of the following 8 country-level child projects:  

1. Burkina Faso (UNIDO implemented) 

1. Colombia (UNDP implemented) 

1. Guyana (Conservation International implemented) 

1. Indonesia (UNDP implemented)  

1. Kenya (UNDP implemented) 

1. Mongolia (UNEP/UNIDO jointly implemented) 

1. Peru (UNDP implemented) 

1. Philippines (UNEP/UNIDO jointly implemented)  

UNDP has the largest share of child projects (~46%) with a GEF grant of $22,791,900 approved in four countries:

Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya and the Philippines:

• Colombia: Integrated Sound Management of Mercury in Colombia's ASGM sector (GEF Grant: 6,000,000 US$; Co-financing 24,000,000 US)$ - PIMS: 59311 

• Indonesia: Integrated Sound Management of Mercury in Indonesia's Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) or ISMA (GEF Grant: 6,720,000 US$; Co-financing: 26,899,702 US$) - PIMS: 5872  

• Kenya: Integrated Sound Management of Mercury in Kenya's ASGM (IMKA) (GEF Grant: 4,200,000 US$; Co-financing 16,650,000 USS) - PIMS 5877

• Peru: Environmental Sound Management of mercury in Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining in Peru (GEF Grant: 3,990,000 US$: Co-financing: 15,270,000 US$) - PIMS: 5874 

Each of these country level child projects has their own Project Preparation Grant (PPG):

• Colombia: 150,000 US$ 

• Indonesia: 150,000 US$

• Kenya: 140,000 US$

• Peru: 130,000 US$

UNDP GEF GOLD Child country projects will be implemented using the NIM modality, however each child project is linked to UNEP GEF GOLD Global project, and to the other 8 child country projects. As such, even though a country/ project specific Initiation Plan (IP) document has been prepared for the PPG phase, implementers should make significant efforts to ensure information exchange between the 8 country child projects, in particular the 4 UNDP projects, and most important the GEF GOLD Global project.