Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

RFI- Thriving Coastal Livelihoods (TCL): unlocking sustainable blue economy finance in the Pacific

This RFI is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Growing the sustainable blue economy (SBE) is critical to support resilient communities and thriving livelihoods in Pacific Island countries. SBE can be understood as marine activities that generate economic value and positively contribute to ecological, cultural and social well-being.

Through emerging areas of ‘blue finance’, there is increasing recognition of the need for innovative finance solutions that leverage Official Development Assistance (ODA) to enable sustainable development. We are considering scaling up our existing support in this area and are looking to work with partners who can deliver finance solutions and technical assistance to support the growth of coastal-focused sustainable enterprises in Pacific Island countries.

We are seeking further information from the sector that can inform our approach to finance in the Pacific. Our early design work has been informed by commissioned desktop research and our broader ODA programme.

We are interested to receive responses from suppliers that have investment expertise and competence in the following areas:

Thematic and geographic areas of investment: our approach focuses on investment in coastal fisheries, aquaculture, marine restoration, eco-tourism, and coastal waste management in the Pacific.

Scale of investment: we want to focus on right-sized investments to scale up small enterprises and consider investments in the range NZ$100,000 - $2,000,000 will likely be suitable. Approaches that would involve financing partnerships on a larger scale would also be considered if the linkage to supporting SMEs and community-level enterprises can be demonstrated.

Technical assistance: in addition to investment, we consider provision of technical assistance or business development support as critical to successfully scale up small enterprises, build capacity, and transfer knowledge.

Pacific experience: familiarity with Pacific Island countries and their economies is important. We are interested in respondents who have demonstrated experience working in the Pacific region or in comparable small island developing states (SIDS), and with experience working at the community and small enterprise level.

Department/Business Unit: Crown Funding