The Fijian Government, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and the UK Government, will be issuing sovereign blue bonds starting from the 2022-2023 financial year. The issuance will focus on raising capital market finance to support projects in four priority sectors: ‘Blue Shipping’, ‘Sustainable Fisheries’, ‘Blue Investment Fund’ and ‘Sustainable Waste Management’.

This RFA focuses on one of the four priority Blue Bond sectors, namely the ‘Blue Investment Fund’. The intent is to create a pathway for generating a steady flow of bankable blue economy projects and businesses, and catalyzing commercial financing in the blue economy sector. To this end, the Government of Fiji plans to use the Blue Bond proceeds as a de-risking grant that financial institutions can mix with their capital to make the terms of financing more patient and in line with the debt serviceability and investment maturity of promising businesses and projects in the blue economy space.

Against this background, the purpose of the RFA is to solicit proposals from financial institutions in Fiji that want to lay the foundations to grow their blue economy portfolio, and be ready to execute the Government’s grant funding that will be made available through the ‘Blue Investment Fund’ in 2023-2024.

Through this RFA, the UNCDF will award a cost-share, performance-based grant of USD 75,000 per financial institution operating in Fiji, with a possible top-up grant based on achievement of milestones.

The grant funding is meant to share the initial cost of developing or expanding the blue economy financing portfolio (e.g. blue financing strategy and policy development, impact measurement framework development, project team recruitment, staff training, marketing, legal advice, accounting, etc.). The applicant must demonstrate at least a 20% cost-share (cash and/or in-kind) to the project budget.

A maximum of two financial institutions will be selected. Successful applicants will sign a performance-based grant agreement with UNCDF who is managing the Request for Application process with UNDP.

Applicants may apply independently (as one financial institution) or in a consortium.

Inquiries to this request for applications may be submitted by email to hee.sung.kim@uncdf.org cc vineil.narayan@undp.org

Deadline

Jul 26 2022 23:59 (EDT)

Please submit your proposal trough this e-investment platform. Submissions using other templates or sent by other electronic or non electronic means will not be eligible.