The Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP), through its three knowledge platforms – Green Policy Platform, Green Industry Platform and Green Finance Platform – and Green Forum community space, provides guidance, data and tools to transition to an inclusive green economy.
From supporting global programmes to closing knowledge gaps, the GGKP spent 2023 working with partners to advance progress on key global goals by utilizing its experience in managing knowledge systems, connecting relevant actors and disseminating knowledge gained to a global audience of policy, industry and finance actors.
During the year, the GGKP continued its collaboration with its network of 90+ partners, working towards a sustainable future through the generation, management and sharing of knowledge, with a particular focus on the circular economy, chemicals and technological innovation.
GGKP on the global stage
In October 2023, GGKP Steering Committee members (GGGI, OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and World Bank) participated in Korea Green Innovation Days. The event, held in Cairo, Egypt, brought together over 350 green growth experts from around the world to share innovative approaches to achieving sustainable development. During the event, the GGKP led an interactive workshop on Empowering Green Transition Decision-Making: Maximizing the Impact of Knowledge Sharing, where senior representatives from GGGI, UNEP and UNIDO discussed the transformative role of technology and digital platforms in reaching global audiences.
In November 2023, GGKP Steering Committee members participated in the OECD Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum in Paris, France, on Navigating the twin transitions: Going green and digital. The event featured a special joint OECD-GGKP session on Green growth and international cooperation in the context of new global challenges.
Gender-just energy transition 
As part of its research programme, the GGKP Gender Expert Group published a working paper in March 2023 on Powering a Gender-Just Energy Transition. The report proposes a Gender-Just Energy Transition Outcomes Framework, which identifies impact areas for gender equality along the value chain and aims to provide sectoral guidance for practitioners and policymakers to assess, identify and implement gender equality outcomes in energy transition initiatives. The Expert Group also hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Green Finance Platform to launch the paper and discuss finance mobilization for transformative energy initiatives.
Sustainable finance transition
Throughout 2023, the Green Finance Platform organized a series of “GGKP Finance Meets” webinars on improving relevance for financial sector audiences by focusing on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) themes, including: how to integrate social elements in financial systems, ESG accounting and disclosure and gender-just transitions. The series – which attracted more than 400 participants from diverse stakeholder groups – highlighted some of the most effective solutions and best practices to advance the global agenda on sustainable finance.
Learn more
- Powering a Gender-Just Energy Transition
- GGKP Gender Expert Group
- Financing Pathways for Gender-Just Energy Transitions
- Standardization and Disclosure: Trends and opportunities for the finance sector
- Creating Social Impact from Financial Decisions
Centering on circularity
In the second half of 2023, the GGKP received funding from the EU to support the enhancement of circular economy knowledge generation, management and sharing globally. Over the next three years, the GGKP will engage with global, regional and national circular economy knowledge hubs and stakeholder platforms to develop clear approaches to promoting the circular economy, improve the exchange of knowledge and experience, and build communities of practices and empower SME-supporting organizations with a range of tools to help them transform knowledge into concrete actions.
At the core of GGKP’s related activities will be the implementation of artificial intelligence-based systems to improve the collation, curation and synthesizing of knowledge resources, and access to knowledge that is adapted to the needs of end-users.
Resource efficiency
The Green Industry Platform launched the I-GO initiative in 2021 to provide SMEs with easy access to the most effective resource efficiency knowledge and support services. The initiative has two key components: I-GO Assistant, a resource efficiency self-assessment and navigation tool, and I-GO Community, a network of organizations dedicated to helping SMEs improve their sustainability and access new markets.
In 2023, the I-GO Assistant’s user base saw substantial growth, surpassing 1,200 assessments from more than 79 countries. It is now accessible in eight different languages (English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian). The I-GO Assistant also expanded its outreach by providing a customized version of the tool to business-supporting organizations and launched two pilot projects with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and UNIDO Nigeria.
Stakeholder engagement has been a priority, evident through the hosting of four I-GO Community roundtables to help business associations, government agencies, NGOs and development organizations increase the impact of their resource efficiency support to SMEs, as well as to have the opportunity to engage with their peers and resource efficiency experts. 
The I-GO initiative also actively engaged with SMEs by conducting I-GO training workshops on resource efficiency in various regions, including MENA (Jordan, Egypt), EECCA (Georgia, Kyrgyzstan), Africa (South Africa, Nigeria) and South Asia. The initiative also collaborated with the GEF ISLAND programme to start I-GO for ISLANDS and hosted its first training workshop for SME stakeholders in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) throughout the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean regions.
Sharing knowledge has been a key element in 2023. This includes a webinar on the circular economy in the lead-up to COP28 and a joint webinar series in collaboration with the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED). The series, Expert insights to support effective green private sector development, aims to help policymakers, donor organizations and development practitioners understand and access the most relevant best practice methodologies, knowledge and tools. In 2023 it covered diverse topics such as green private sector development, women's empowerment and advancing biodiversity.
Learn more
- I-GO Assistant
- I-GO for ISLANDS
- I-GO Community Roundtables
- I-GO Community Space
- Training workshop for SME stakeholders in SIDS
Reducing harm from chemicals
GEF ISLANDS programme
On World Environment Day on 5 June 2023, the Global Environment Facility-funded ISLANDS programme launched the Tide Turners App – a mobile application that empowers young people to curb plastic pollution by equipping them with youth-focused solutions. Building on the momentum of the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge developed as part of UNEP’s Clean Seas Campaign, ISLANDS reimagined the original challenge as a social and gamified app tailored to those aged 12-25; it was developed through a collaboration with young people from SIDS.
To continue innovating in delivering accessible and engaging knowledge, the GGKP – through its coordination, communication and knowledge management (CCKM) role for the ISLANDS project – created a video shorts page for visitors to learn about chemicals and waste issues impacting SIDS, and what ISLANDS is doing to help.
In 2023, through the ISLANDS programme, the GGKP also organized four webinars dedicated to key programmatic areas with a specific focus on SIDS. The ISLANDS CCKM series included the following events: I-GO for ISLANDS: Tailored resource efficiency for SMEs in Small Island Developing States; Sharing SIDS best practices on e-waste management; SIDS-to-SIDS best practice sharing on end-of-life vehicle (ELV) management; and Used oil management in SIDS. Each webinar served as a launch event for their respective ISLANDS Communities of Practice on the Green Forum.
Chemicals and waste management community of practice
The GGKP collaborated with the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Secretariat to run a Community of Practice (CoP) focusing on chemicals and waste management. Hosted on the GGKP’s online interactive community, the Green Forum, the all-encompassing CoP on chemicals and waste management brought together four SAICM CoPs initially established in 2020 – Highly Hazardous Pesticides, Chemicals in Products, Lead in Paint, and Chemicals and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Chemicals and Waste CoP hosted five discussions and a webinar in 2023 on issues of concern, chemicals of concern across diverse supply chains, capacity building and other relevant topics. The community consists of practitioners working on chemicals and waste management, including representatives from academia, governments, industry, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and consumers. Discussions offer an opportunity to learn about the latest research and developments, see what representatives from different sectors are doing under the scope of chemicals and waste management, and provide access to expertise on various topics related to SAICM.
Shifting finance toward a healthier food system
Throughout the year, the GGKP prepared for the launch of a new GEF programme aimed at reducing, eliminating and better managing dangerous agrochemicals, such as POPs and HHPs, and agricultural plastics. The Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management (FARM) programme is a $37-million programme funded by GEF and led by UNEP, with projects that will be executed by the Asian Development Bank, FAO, UNDP and UNIDO in Ecuador, India, Kenya, Lao PDR, Philippines, Uruguay and Viet Nam, and at a global level by GGKP.
FARM seeks to align policy, enforcement and finance towards the environmentally sustainable management of pesticides and agricultural plastics, reduce the use of harmful inputs and accelerate the adoption of low/non-chemical alternatives. The GGKP supports in-country projects by utilizing its expertise in knowledge management and delivery to provide a common knowledge platform, amplify and synthesis project results, and facilitate information exchange. FARM’s global launch will take place on 12 March 2024, registration will open in January 2024.
Learn more
- SAICM Community of Practice
- ISLANDS Communities of Practice
- Tide Turners App
- Discover ISLANDS webinars
- ISLANDS shorts
Nature-positive knowledge
The role of nature in the green economy is an increasingly important issue for policymakers and the private sector. Through the Natural Capital for African Development Finance (NC4-ADF) initiative partnership and collaboration with DCED, the GGKP continued to make meaningful contributions to this area in 2023. Three new publications from NC4-ADF were released, which looked at natural capital approaches and nature-based solutions as methods for evaluating investment projects in Africa and pursuing a green recovery throughout the continent.
Post-COP28, the GGKP and DCED held their third joint webinar, which focused on the importance of biodiversity finance for sustaining critical ecosystem services and fostering low-carbon and resource-efficient private sector development. The session explored perspectives from the public and private sectors on biodiversity financing and the need to accelerate progress toward preventing and reversing the loss of nature.
Learn more
- Discover the NC4-ADF publications
- Beyond COP28 - Advancing Biodiversity Finance for Global Climate Impact
Infrastructure for the green economic transition
The GGKP’s knowledge management expertise and infrastructure allow it to support various initiatives and programmes as it works to transform the economy and move forward on global goals, from sustainable development to addressing climate change. In 2023, five new initiative pages were added to the GGKP’s site:
GGKP collaborated with the Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C) programme – to build a shared platform through which partners, governments and experts can participate in global Article 6 knowledge exchange. The platform was launched at COP28.
The GEF National Implementation Plan (NIP) Update Project, which aims to assist participating countries in complying with the Stockholm Convention, had its global inception in March 2023. The GGKP leads Component 4 of the project and developed and launched an initiative page, which provides public access for any country to the NIP review and relevant knowledge resources, products, news and events.
The Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals legacy initiative site documents the long-term collaboration between UNDP and UNEP to deepen and broaden poverty-environment mainstreaming and align finance and investment with poverty, environment and climate objectives in the face of the changing forms and conditions of poverty.
GGKP also began hosting the Knowledge Hub for Transforming the Extractive Industries for Sustainable Development as well as the GEF Congo Basin Impact Programme site.
Learn more
- SPAR6C
- NIP Global Update
- Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals
- Knowledge Hub for Transforming the Extractive Industries for Sustainable Development
- Congo Basin Impact Programme
