Coastal Fisheries Initiative - Challenge Fund (CFI-CF)

The Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI) is a collaborative, global effort funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to preserve marine resources and ensure that coastal fisheries can continue to play their crucial role in society, contributing to food security, as well as economic and social development.

The Challenge Fund, a child project of the CFI Program led by the World Bank, aims to engage businesses and the financing community in support of more productive and sustainable coastal fisheries.

The Challenge Fund helps to make the connection between fishing communities, businesses, and investors, as well as government. When the interests of these parties are aligned, they have the power together to improve coastal fish resources, enhance the wellbeing of communities, and boost local and national economies.

In bringing those stakeholders together, the Challenge Fund aims to build coalitions that rally behind the common goal of improving the sustainability and productivity of coastal fisheries.

The Challenge Fund focuses on concrete business ideas and supports coalitions in finding innovative, long-term solutions to reach their common goals in designing responsible investment packages and identifying obstacles to their implementation.

Four countries have joined the Challenge Fund: Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Indonesia and Peru. In each country, activities are linked to an ongoing World Bank project. In addition to country-level work, CFI-CF is implementing a Global Knowledge Competition to seek coalitions among fishing communities, business and finance communities, and governments with innovative solutions that address overfishing and inefficiencies in coastal fisheries. The CFI-CF Global Knowledge Competition will source collaborative solutions worldwide, with a targeted focus on Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Peru.