Advancing Finance for FIPs: Strategies to unlock public and private finance for Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs)

This report proposes a development framework and associated strategies for diversifying and increasing funding to support the success of FIPs, with a particular focus on small-scale fisheries (SSF) and fisheries in the developing world context. In particular, the framework:

• Recognizes the key enabling conditions, drivers for impact, and requirements for investment, including both asset and enabling investments for a sustainable and profitable SSF;

• Introduces the concept of a multi-level action strategy, which connects FIPs with other initiatives to build collective impact and unlock greater financing; and

• Incorporates a blended finance and landscape approach (expanding impacts to include environment, economic, and equity (3E) considerations) in order to match funders with goals, identify entry points, and design a multiphased project that includes an investment readiness phase. The pathway starts with addressing barriers to finance and then progresses to attracting return-seeking investment in later stages.

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