Blue Planet Fund Call for Proposals

Program Status: Past call closed July 2, 2023. Twelve projects were selected and announced at COP28 in December 2023.

Geographic Scope:

• ODA-eligible Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
• Coastal Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
• Projects announced included work in: Costa Rica, Panama, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Honduras, Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam, and global initiatives

Focus Areas:

• Development and deployment of community-led finance and insurance products that build coastal and ocean resilience
• Investment into ocean and coastal Nature-based Solutions (NbS) (e.g., mangrove protection/restoration, blue carbon credits)
• Climate adaptation and resilience support
• Risk mitigation related to overfishing, pollution, and other ocean threats
• Parametric and indemnity insurance products for coastal protection
• Microinsurance for small-scale fishers and coastal communities
• Marine Protected Area (MPA) sustainable financing
• Community-managed biodiversity funds
• Gender-transformative approaches in fisheries
• Blue carbon project development

Eligibility Requirements:

• Projects must be locally-led and align with local community priorities
• Must be climate, nature, and gender positive
• Should enable investment into ocean/coastal Nature-based Solutions, support adaptation/resilience, or mitigate risk multipliers
• Submission in English only
• Projects located or deployed in ODA-eligible SIDS and coastal LDCs

Total Funding: More than GBP£3.2 million / USD$4 million granted across 12 selected projects in 2023

Background:
Part of ORRAA's mission to catalyse investment of at least USD$500 million into coastal and ocean natural capital through development and deployment of financial products. Goal is to build resilience of 250 million climate-vulnerable coastal people by 2030. First wave of projects selected November 2022 from Canadian funding. Second wave announced December 2023 at COP28 from Blue Planet Fund.

Application Process

Submission Method:

• Submit project proposals through the ORRAA application portal
• All submissions must be in English

Key Requirements:

• Projects must demonstrate pioneering approach to enhancing ocean and coastal resilience
• Must include scalable finance and insurance products
• Projects should lock in sustainable financing mechanisms
• Must be locally-led and align with local community priorities
• Should be climate, nature, and gender positive

Project Focus Areas (select one or more):

• Enable investment into ocean/coastal Nature-based Solutions
• Support adaptation and resilience
• Mitigate risk multipliers (overfishing, pollution, etc.)

Geographic Requirements:

• Located or deployed in ODA-eligible Small Island Developing States (SIDS) or Coastal Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

Technical Support:

• Applicants experiencing technical difficulties should email info@oceanriskalliance.org

Additional Resources:

• Project criteria and instructional video available on ORRAA website