MONIQUE BARBUT

Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility

Mrs. Monique Barbut, a French national, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairperson of the GEF since August 2006.

She was appointed by a unanimous decision of the GEF Council on June 2006. During her tenure and following its fourth replenishment at a level of $3.13 billion, she has undertaken a revitalization of the GEF organization to make it a more effective, responsive and results–based institution.

In November 2008, Mrs. Barbut was reappointed by the GEF Council for another three-year term and in this position she will be leading the next GEF replenishment process.

GEF's reform initiatives

Monique Barbut

Articles on the CEO

Financing adaptation action: GEF projects under the SPA, the LDCF and the SCCF , Earth Negotiations Bulletin- December 5, 2007
An Interview with Ms Barbut, Chair of the GEF, Tokyo, Mainichi Shimbun, Sept 2007, Japanese | English
Spotlight: Monique Barbut of the UN Global Environment Facility, May 2007 International Herald Tribune
Is international financing bowing to fashion? Monique Barbut responds, Espaces Naturels, July 2008 English | French | Spanish

Biography

Prior to joining the GEF, Mrs. Barbut served as Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) from September 2003 to July 2006, where she undertook a reorganization of the Division and established a pragmatic approach to ensuring the link between environment and economics, setting up development policies and pilot projects, including in developing countries or countries experiencing critical backgrounds (China and Iraq).

Between 1981 and 2003 at the Agence Francaise de Developpement Group (AFD), France’s principal executing agency for project aid, Mrs. Barbut led different positions related to French aid system. In 2003, she was appointed as Executive Director for all Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean activities.

Mrs. Barbut began her professional career with a long and varied service in France’s economic development bank, la Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique, where, after early work on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, she led Caisse Centrale’s project financing activities in the French overseas territories, and activities relating to ex-post evaluation. Throughout the 1990s, she became increasingly involved with the issue of financing sustainable development, both for the French government and on the international scene in general.

As a member of the French government delegation to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Mrs. Barbut was a key player in the financing negotiations, and later on an active negotiator in the creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as well as the French Global Environment Facility (FGEF), to which she was appointed first Chief Executive Officer.

Mrs. Barbut is married and has three children.