Yasmine Fouad, Egypt's Minister of Environment, has been selected as a member of the Executive Council of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, a new multi-partner trust fund established by China and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Fouad is one of 15 members chosen from developing countries. The announcement was made during her participation in the "Endgame Facilitation" workshop, part of the preparations for the upcoming Biodiversity Conference in Canada. The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, also known as the Kunming Biodiversity Fund, was launched with an initial grant of CHY 1.5bn (approximately $220m) from China. The fund was established in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Fouad emphasised that the fund's primary goal is to accelerate progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in developing countries, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Executive Council, the fund's decision-making body, will oversee the strategic management of the fund, delegating administrative and operational tasks to a secretariat hosted by UNEP. The Executive Council will be responsible for reviewing and approving key documents and the fund's budget, making decisions on allocations and proposals, reviewing and approving reports and projects, conducting audits, and assessing the fund's overall status and progress against set outcomes. The ministerial group will provide strategic guidance and oversee the fund's key directions and decisions. Fouad highlighted that this selection marks a significant success in multilateral cooperation and is one of the key outcomes of the negotiations at the COP15 Biodiversity Conference. At the conference, parties agreed on the need to establish a new financing mechanism to support the global biodiversity framework.
