SDG 14 Life Below Water

Supporting the creation of the Blue Action Fund

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Strategy & Concept development: Supporting marine and coastal protection is a strategic priority of the German government. We helped KfW to translate this priority into the setup of a conservation trust fund dedicated to supporting marine-protected areas and coastal waters of Africa, Latin America and Asia. The fund addresses an important funding gap and serves as a global platform and financial partner for NGOs to channel funding to marine/coastal conservation projects (www.blueactionfund.org).

Project design & Evaluation: With the aim of creating an efficient, far-reaching, impactful funding vehicle, we developed the institutional and operational aspects of the Blue Action Fund in a Design Study. The study laid the groundwork for founding the fund as a German Foundation. Furthermore, we elaborated a Grant Procedures Manual and an internal Operations Manual to design all processes from project preparation to monitoring of ongoing projects. 

Process facilitation & Training: We supported the entire process from developing the initial idea to setup of the Fund and organising the first call for proposals from participating NGOs. This busy period of one and a half years saw a number of multi-stakeholder conferences, workshops and steering committee meetings. It served as an important source of inspiration and buy-in from the many stakeholders.

Supporting organizational development of the Nature Trust Alliance (NTA)

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Strategy & Concept development: Globally, there are more than 50 conservation trust funds, which are all managed separately. While some funds, especially in Latin America, regularly share experiences with each other, collaboration on administrative matters is virtually non-existent. However, as experience from the private sector shows, sharing such services holds the potential to reduce costs. In this context, we analyzed two conservation trust funds to identify strategies for pooling resources in the areas of administration, investment and grant activities.

Project design & Evaluation: We calculated the potential cost savings and synergies and recommended an institutional set-up for the shared services provision. As a result of this study, the Nature Trust Alliance was founded, a unique collaboration between three of Europe’s leading conservation trust funds. It provides operational support services, thus enabling the trust funds to focus on their core mission of nature conservation.

Process facilitation & Training: After its foundation, we supported NTA in developing its vision, mission and core services through a series of workshops with NTA employees and the Executive Directors of the supported funds. In this process, we used a wide range of design thinking methods, such as the “Painting from the Core” to facilitate the development of practical and innovative ideas. In close cooperation with the NTA team, we elaborated the Operational Manual with related tools to support the alliance’s daily work and structure processes and workflows, in line with the possibilities of the newly established organization.

Developing a multi-stakeholder sustainable use of mangroves programme in Madagascar

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Project design & Evaluations: Madagascar is home to 20% of Africa’s mangroves. Many coastal communities depend on them for their daily livelihood and benefit from other eco-system services. However, mangrove wood is cut illegally for charcoal production and construction. Consequently, the surface of mangrove forests in Madagascar has significantly declined, posing a threat to related ecosystems and livelihoods. Against this backdrop, we developed a programme to foster reforestation, community-based resource governance, and alternative livelihoods. The programme is managed by the Madagassi national parks agency and works with both international and local NGOs to implement specific projects. We selected NGO projects through a call for proposals and developed an overall programme concept.

Process facilitation & Training: In order to develop a coherent programme with a multitude of stakeholders, we commenced the assignment by developing a joint vision among all stakeholders during a side event to the Madagassi national conference on mangroves. For the evaluation of the proposals, we organized a pitch day, where each organization presented their concept and was available for initial questioning. We harmonized the approach and monitoring among the selected proposals by facilitating a joint workshop with metaplan and Theory U methods.