The Strategic Partnership approved by Council in 2001 represents a pilot test of GEF’s strategy to harness implementing agencies in working together to help the countries address key transboundary concerns---in this case pollution from the nutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) with subsequent eutrophication of the lower Danube and the Black Sea that has created many environmental and water use problems.

Framework brief Interim Progress Report Investment Fund Paper Black Sea Presentation

There are three main components of the Strategic Partnership:

• The Danube Regional Project (DRP)implemented by UNDP
  The project provides technical assistance and capacity building. It focuses on policy/legal/institutional reforms and includes associated finance for national projects for $1 billion in water quality investments to accompany the reforms and involves the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).
  
  
• The Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Regional Project (BSERP)
  The Black Sea Ecosystem Recovery Regional Project (BSERP) implemented by UNDP and UNEP. It also focuses on reforms; the UNEP element addresses regional legal frameworks for pollution reduction and fisheries.
  
  
• The Investment Fund for Nutrient Reduction (IFNR) implemented by the World Bank (see below). This test of innovative financing supports single country, single sector investment sub-projects for nutrient reduction in the municipal, industrial, and agriculture sectors as well as wetland/floodplain restoration.The Council approved funding in 3 tranches totaling $70 mil for the 6+ year implementation period.

  The long-term objective of the Strategic Partnership was for all Danube/ Black Sea basin countries to take measures to reduce nutrient pollution levels and other hazardous substances to such levels necessary to permit Black Sea ecosystems to recover to similar conditions as those observed in the 1960s. Over the last years, the Danube River and the Black Sea have shown positive environmental responses, and while the GEF-supported projects cannot take the overall credit for the improvement in basin water quality and ecosystems, there is wide recognition that the GEF and its Partnership have played an important catalytic role in nutrient reduction activities supported by national actors and international community. GEF-funded pilot demonstration projects have very successfully complemented EU-funded investments in the water and agriculture sectors and serve as a model for WB similar initiatives in other regions.

The Investment Fund, established by the GEF and managed by the World Bank, was to catalyze investments and accelerate action by other stakeholders interested in the recovery of the Black Sea. The Investment Fund aimed to leverage US$210 million to complement US$70 million GEF grant funds for nutrient reduction investments in the agriculture, and municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sectors and for wetland restoration. The Investment Fund Paperlays out the objectives and principles of the Fund's operations. Since its inception in 2001, the World Bank, through the Bank-GEF Investment Fund for Nutrient Reduction, has leveraged $65 million in GEF grants with more than $260 million in loans and other co-financing for investments, policy reforms and capacity-building projects in basin countries. These projects address wetland restoration, agricultural pollution control and nutrient reduction from wastewater treatment plants. Currently the World Bank-led Nutrient Reduction Projectsinclude ten projects in: Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Moldova, Serbia, and Turkey, with a project on environmental pollution control in Georgia that served as a prototype for all other projects in the region.

Sustainability is the main challenge of the projects that are result of the Partnership and the Investment Fund initiative. Sustainability can be achieved through the replication of demonstration projects. Romania, for example, decided to replicate the project on agriculture pollution control that was piloted with GEF funds in one district to several districts, with its own funds and a loan from the World Bank. Similarly, Moldova will receive support from the EU to finance a constructed wetland for wastewater treatment and nutrient reduction, based on the experience gained in preparing and now implementing a GEF-supported pilot. We hope that lessons learned during the implementation of the projects will also become useful for those who work on similar environmental initiatives in other regions. For details see Project Overview.