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Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is responsible for overseeing the operation of the Fund. The Committee comprises seven members from Article 5 and seven from non-Article 5 parties, selected each year by the Meeting of the Parties. Committee decisions are reached by a two-thirds majority vote representing individual majorities of each group – ensuring that neither donors nor recipients dominate the operations of the Fund. In fact, no vote has ever been taken in the entire history of the Committee; it has always found it possible to operate by consensus.

The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee are taken, one each, from the two different groups and alternate each year between them. The Committee meets two times a year, coordinating its meetings where possible with other meetings of the Parties.

The terms of reference of the Committee are set by the Meeting of the Parties. In summary, they include developing the Fund’s policies and guidelines, such as criteria for project eligibility, and monitoring their implementation; drawing up the three-year plan and budget for the Fund, including the allocation of resources amongst the implementing agencies; approving country programmes and specific projects, or groups of projects; reporting on the Fund’s performance to the Meeting of the Parties each year; and overseeing the Fund’s administration.

For many years, the Executive Committee operated through two standing sub-committees, set up to carry out specific tasks. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Finance Sub-Committee was responsible for reviewing the cycle of business planning and monitoring of approved projects, while the Sub-Committee on Project Review considered and reviewed all projects and activities submitted to the Fund, produced recommendations for the Executive Committee, and followed up any outstanding policy issues. In practice, however, as countries moved towards multi-year plans aimed at total phase-out, the issues considered by the two sub-committees increasingly overlapped, and tended to be discussed more than once in different forums. At the end of 2003, therefore, the Committee decided to abolish the two sub-committees, and merge all their work into the plenary meetings of the Committee, setting up working groups to deal with specific issues as necessary.

Terms of reference of the Executive Committee


As modified by the Meeting of the Parties in its decisions IX/16, XVI/38 and XIX/11.

1. The Executive Committee of the Parties is established to develop and monitor the implementation of specific operational policies, guidelines and administrative arrangements, including the disbursement of resources, for the purpose of achieving the objectives of the Multilateral Fund under the Financial Mechanism.

2. The Executive Committee shall consist of seven Parties from the group of Parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Protocol and seven Parties from the group of Parties not so operating. Each group shall select its Executive Committee members. Seven seats allocated to the group of Parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 shall be allocated as follows: two seats to Parties of the African region, two seats to Parties of the region of Asia and the Pacific, two seats to Parties of the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, and one rotating seat among the regions referred, including the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The members of the Executive Committee shall be endorsed by the Meeting of the Parties.

2 bis. The members of the Executive Committee whose selection was endorsed by the Eighth Meeting of the Parties shall remain in office until 31 December 1997. Thereafter, the term of office of the members of the Committee shall be the calendar year commencing on 1 January of the calendar year after the date of their endorsement by the Meeting of the Parties.

3. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman shall be selected from the fourteen Executive Committee members. The office of Chairman is subject to rotation, on an annual basis, between the Parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 and the Parties not so operating. The group of Parties entitled to the chairmanship shall select the Chairman from among their members of the Executive Committee. The Vice-Chairman shall be selected by the other group from within their number.

4. Decisions by the Executive Committee shall be taken by consensus whenever possible. If all efforts at consensus have been exhausted and no agreement reached, decisions shall be taken by a two-thirds majority of the Parties present and voting, representing a majority of the Parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 and a majority of the Parties not so operating present and voting.

5. The meetings of the Executive Committee shall be conducted in those official languages of the United Nations required by members of the Executive Committee. Nevertheless, the Executive Committee may agree to conduct its business in one of the United Nations official languages.

6. Costs of Executive Committee meetings, including travel and subsistence of Committee participants from Parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5, shall be disbursed from the Multilateral Fund as necessary.

7. The Executive Committee shall ensure that the expertise required to perform its functions is available to it.

8. The Executive Committee shall have the flexibility to hold two or three meetings annually, if it so decides, and shall report at each Meeting of the Parties on any decision taken there. The Executive Committee should consider meeting, when appropriate, in conjunction with other Montreal Protocol meetings.

9. The Executive Committee shall adopt other rules of procedure on a provisional basis and in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 8 of the present terms of reference. Such provisional rules of procedure shall be submitted to the next annual meeting of the Parties for endorsement. This procedure shall also be followed when such rules of procedure are amended.

10. The functions of the Executive Committee shall include:

(a) To develop and monitor the implementation of specific operational policies, guidelines and administrative arrangements, including the disbursement of resources;

(b) To develop the plan and budget for the Multilateral Fund, including allocation of Multilateral Fund resources among the agencies identified in paragraph 5 of Article 10 of the Amended Protocol;

(c) To supervise and guide the administration of the Multilateral Fund;

(d) To develop the criteria for project eligibility and guidelines for the implementation of activities supported by the Multilateral Fund;

(e) To review regularly the performance reports on the implementation of activities supported by the Multilateral Fund;

(f) To monitor and evaluate expenditure incurred under the Multilateral Fund;

(g) To consider and, where appropriate, approve country programmes for compliance with the Protocol and, in the context of those country programmes, assess and where applicable approve all project proposals or groups of project proposals where the agreed incremental costs exceed $500,000;

(h) To review any disagreement by a Party operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 with any decision taken with regard to a request for financing by that Party of a project or projects where the agreed incremental costs are less than $500,000;

(i) To assess annually whether the contributions through bilateral cooperation, including particular regional cases, comply with the criteria set out by the Parties for consideration as part of the contributions to the Multilateral Fund;

(j) To report annually to the meeting of the Parties on the activities exercised under the functions outlined above, and to make recommendations as appropriate;

(k) To nominate, for appointment by the Executive Director of UNEP, the Chief Officer of the Fund Secretariat, who shall work under the Executive Committee and report to it; and

(l) To perform such other functions as may be assigned to it by the Meeting of the Parties.
  		 

Documents
ExecutiveCommitteeMembers1991-2023.pdfExecutive Committee Members 1991-2023ExecutiveCommitteeMembers1991-2023

Membership of the Executive Committee in 2024

Developing countries (Article 5)

- Argentina
- Cuba
- Ghana
- India
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Tunisia

Developed countries (non-Article 5)

- Belgium
- Canada
- Estonia
- Italy
- Japan
- Sweden
- United States of America

Chair and Vice-Chair

Ms. Maria Antonella Parodi (Argentina) serves as Chair of the Executive Committee for one year beginning 1 January 2024.  Mr. Alessandro Guiliano Peru (Italy) serves as Vice-Chair.
  		 
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