Based in a storied maritime country with a long heritage of ocean exploration, Sweden’s international development co-operation agency Sida is a natural fit with UNDP’s Ocean Innovation Challenge (OIC). Launched in 2020, the OIC supports ocean innovations that contribute to the achievement of SDG 14 – Life Below Water, which aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. OIC Projects contribute more broadly to the rest of the 2030 Agenda and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“Our innovators change lives, working on gender, youth and livelihood issues as well as the technological innovations which other programmes might have as their sole focus” says OIC Manager Mary Matthews.
Photo: Didarul Islam/Pexels
Supported by Swedish and Norwegian development agencies Sida and Norad, the OIC has just completed its fourth round of calls for innovative ideas to support blue economies and sustainable fisheries, protect marine biodiversity, and address marine pollution. The scheme offers much more than material support – successful innovators benefit from technical and management mentoring, aid for communications and promotions, and access to capital.
“Innovation comes out of necessity” said Mary Matthews, speaking at World Water Week in Stockholm. “Innovation is an ecosystem that needs support like any other. We need to help our developing country innovators pilot, scale and replicate all the transformational ideas that are out there, and there are so many for us to support and incubate and see them spread all over the world.”
Ranging from upcycled coconut husks, to extending the useful life of fishing nets, to protecting biodiversity in coral reefs, the three projects described here illustrate the breadth of imaginative innovations that OIC supports, out of the 36 initiatives selected in the challenges.
Fortuna Cools aims to solve two problems with one solution and have transformed the landscape of sustainability and livelihoods in the Philippines, their first country of operation. Fortuna upcycles waste coconut husks (which otherwise would be burned) into insulated fresh fish cooler boxes (which otherwise would be produced from polystyrene foam with big CO2 and plastic waste footprints). Now looking to expand into Viet Nam and Thailand, Fortuna has diverted over 400,000 coconut husks from burn pits, prevented 400 tonnes of plastic foam pollution, and 600 tonnes of CO2 emissions during their two year OIC involvement. More than 1,000 fisher families enjoy improved livelihoods, and more than 1,200 coolers have been sold.
