The Twenty-fifth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to establish an open-ended contact group, with no specific terms of reference to consolidate all views and formulate a consensus on concessional lending. The group should begin its discussions immediately and should report back to the next meeting of the Executive Committee.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/25/68, Decision 25/53, para. 94 ).
The convener of the Contact Group on Concessional Lending, which had held two meetings in Cairo during the Twenty-sixth Meeting of the Executive Committee, gave a report on the work of the group and said that its conclusions were as follows:
(a) progress was made by the Group in getting a better understanding of both the fears of countries in initiating concessional financing, and the broad conceptual framework under which such financing could exist;
(b) there was agreement that it would be useful to more fully develop potential models for such financing, and provide examples, which, to the degree possible, describe how the fears were addressed;
(c) there was agreement that it would be useful to ask Implementing Agencies, bilateral donors, Article 5 countries and companies to, if they desired, bring forward innovative ideas in this area for the Executive Committee’s consideration.
The Executive Committee took note of the presentation of the convener of the Contact Group on Concessional Lending and noted that the full report on its meetings would be circulated to all members of the Committee.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/26/70 (paras. 81 and 82).
The Twenty-seventh Meeting of the Executive Committee decided:
(a) to request the Secretariat, in co-operation with the Implementing Agencies, to prepare a document for the Twenty-eighth Meeting of the Executive Committee containing a compendium of past decisions and describing experiences so far with loan components;
(b) to request the Secretariat and the Implementing Agencies to collaborate on real-life scenarios, highlighting issues and problems that might be associated with them, including such concerns as the lack of management capacity in some countries and the fear of augmenting the national debt of countries that were already in economic crisis.
(c) to consider this subject again at the Twenty-eighth Meeting.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/27/48, Decision 27/84, para. 128).
(Supporting document: UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/27/47).
The Twenty-eighth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided:
(a) to take note of the following principles presented by the representative of Canada and discussed by the Executive Committee:
(i) recipient Governments should not be required to assume additional official debt as a result of agreeing to Multilateral Fund projects that utilized more innovative financing arrangements;
(ii) if a country agreed to a project which included concessional lending or “innovative funding” arrangements, any funds which are eventually repaid to the project should be used, at the direction of the Executive Committee, to address further related needs within the same country;
(iii) the parameters of innovative financing projects must be tailored to meet the needs of the project being considered and the capacity of the recipient country;
(iv) the operation of concessional loans, or other innovative financing mechanisms, required an appropriate provision for administrative costs;
(b) to invite the members of the Executive Committee to submit to the Secretariat comments on these four principles or further such principles required, to be incorporated into a broad framework document to be considered at the Twenty-ninth Meeting of the Executive Committee;
(c) to discuss the issue and principles at the Twenty-ninth Meeting, both as an item on the agenda and in a large-scale informal meeting.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/28/57, Decision 28/48, para. 87).
The Twenty-ninth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to take note of the documents on the subject, including an analysis prepared by the World Bank on past experience with concessional loans, and the proposed framework contained in pages 4 and 5 of document UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/29/59, as a useful basis for further discussion, and to seek the guidance of the Meeting of the Parties on how to proceed further.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/29/65, Decision 29/71, para. 113).
The Thirtieth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to include an item on concessional lending in the agenda of its Thirty-first Meeting.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/30/41, Decision 30/2, para. 7).
The Thirty-second Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to defer further consideration of concessional lending at this time.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/32/44, Decision 32/83, para. 105).
The Thirty-third Meeting of the Executive Committee decided that concessional lending would be placed on the agenda of the Thirty-fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/33/32, Decision 33/59 para. 101).