The purpose of the Third OverallPerformance Study (OPS3), commissioned by the GlobalEnvironment Facility (GEF) Council, is "to assess theextent to which GEF has achieved, or is on its way towardsachieving its main objectives, as laid down in the GEFInstrument and subsequent decisions by the GEF Council andthe Assembly, including key documents such as theOperational Strategy and the Policy Recommendations agreedas part of the Third Replenishment of the GEF TrustFund." (GEF/C.23/4) The OPS3 team recognizes that thisstudy is taking place at a critical time and will provideinput that is relevant to the Fourth Replenishment of theGEF Trust Fund, which will be taking place shortly after thepublication of the OPS3 study. A primary goal of OPS3 is toprovide relevant, timely, and actionable recommendations foreach of the Terms of Reference (TOR) areas to support thereplenishment process and associated programming. The scopeof OPS3 is defined by the "Terms of Reference for theThird Overall Performance Study approved by the GEF Councilon May 21, 2004, and it covers five main themes : 1) Resultsof GEF activities. 2) Sustainability of results at thecountry level. 3) GEF as a catalytic institution. 4) GEFpolicies, institutional structure, and partnerships. 5) GEFimplementation processes.