The Blue Academy

Overview: 

This session explored the cutting edge Lean:Evolved technology and its transformative effects on food production, processing, and  storage, with special emphasis on the  aquaculture sector. Experts from Collaborative Impact presented case studies and demonstrated how Lean:Evolved advances adaptability, reduces waste generation, decreases expenses, improves productivity, and fosters profitability. The participants also took part in four polls, which gave them a practical grasp of how this innovative tool can help create climate-smart food production systems to support low-carbon and build climate resilience. 

Key Takeaways:

• With the demand for food on the rise globally, tackling food insecurity and environmental sustainability requires major changes to the traditional food production systems. Food systems in developing countries in particular face daunting challenges amidst climate crises, including the necessity for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing resource use efficiency, and lower energy and costs while addressing economic hardships. Aquaculture farms are mostly small and medium scale businesses which face high loan interests, struggle to make profits and are seeking to optimize the ways they operate and minimize waste. 

• Lean:Evolved is a proven, adaptable, innovative method that can address these issues with minimal cost, resulting in flexible, efficient, and robust businesses. This technology seeks to maximize productivity while simultaneously minimizing waste for performance optimization. It offers tools, techniques, and systematic steps to drive change. It also aims to develop a culture of continuous improvement and problem-solving. Lean:Evolved is tailored to be easily accessible and transferable, simple to learn, and easy to apply. It is user-friendly, relatable, practical and can be easily incorporated into local culture. 

• "Lean management in aquaculture: A practical guide for smallholder fish farmers”, developed by Collaborative Impact, provides a simple, step-by-step solution to help farmers address major issues in aquaculture production and transform their small-scale fish farms into lean and profit-making businesses. 

• In the context of the blue economy, Lean:Evolved can be a powerful tool applied to improve the efficiency of the aquaculture and fisheries sectors. For example, the technology was applied in small-holder aquaculture farms and large co-ops in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda to improve food processing, food preservation and final product quality. All the farms where the technology was applied were facing issues of inefficient practices, waste of resources, high fish mortality and excessive fuel and energy use. A large-scale multi-year initiative was carried out. As a result over 400 people were trained in multiple states, improvement activities were carried out in 175 farms resulting in astounding results such as significant reduction in fish loss, energy use, waste, and transportation, which in turn produced less carbon emissions. Overall, targeted fish farms increased their production capacity, processing, food quality, while increasing staff satisfaction and engagement. 

• Lean:Evolved supports the overarching goals of World Bank and aligns with the goals of PROBLUE and PROGREEN by offering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in marine and terrestrial environments. Lean strategies and methods can be applied in many PROBLUE and PROGREEN initiatives as they contribute to enhanced resource use efficiency, improved climate change resilience, improved water quality, enhanced sustainable fishery practices, reduced carbon footprints, and minimized environmental impact.  

Recording can be accessed here. 

Overview: 

This session explored the Plastic Substitution Tradeoff Estimator (PSTE), a tool that aims to help countries assess the true costs of plastics and substitute products, and the Plastics Policy Simulator (PPS) a model that simulates the impacts that different combinations of policy instruments have on the economic agents across the plastic value chain. These tools have been developed by the Word Bank, with PROBLUE support, as part of the report Where Is the Value in the Chain? Pathways out of Plastic Pollution. 

The panelists walked the audience, including internal World Bank staff and external experts working on plastic pollution at various agencies, through demos and a number of case-studies so that participants could visualize how those are implemented.

Key Takeaways:

• The impacts of plastic pollution are becoming more and more evident at the global, regional, and national levels. With an upcoming international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, there is considerable momentum for countries, the private sector, CSOs, international organizations, and other stakeholders to come together and find solutions.

• The World Bank has been working on a number of decision-support tools and methodologies to help governments in the design and implementation of solutions to end plastic pollution. Other partners, with representatives present at the session (UNEP, IUCN, WEF, UNCTAD…), have similarly been working on such tools.

• The Plastic Substitution Tradeoff Estimator (PSTE) is an innovative model that can support countries in setting targets by estimating the external costs of 10 plastic products and their alternatives along their entire life cycle. The PSTE was piloted in 5 countries and is now being further tested in Philippines and Ghana.

• The Plastics Policy Simulator (PPS) is the first technology-financial model for policy makers to estimate how firms and households will react to various plastic policy instruments and what the costs, revenues, and other impacts of these policies will be before laws are passed or public money is spent. It supports governments, industry, and civil society in search of mutually agreeable policy reforms to enhance plastic circularity and reduce plastic pollution. The PPS has been piloted in Indonesia and is now underway in Ghana and the Philippines. Other countries where there are plans to implement it are Türkiye, Georgia, and Ukraine.

• Both models, which are customized to country contexts, aim to support governments in identifying and choosing among policy instruments, as well as plastic alternatives in their efforts to prevent plastic pollution.

• The PPS and PSTE are in the rollout phase and were developed for widespread and open-access use. We work in partnerships and in collaboration – and this session was an excellent opportunity to share these tools both internally and externally. The success of these tools will lie in their uptake and use in client countries.

Recording can be accessed here. 

Overview:

Aquaculture is the food production sector with the fastest annual growth nowadays, and its production represents more than 50% of global fish production intended for human consumption. Considering the increased demand for high-quality seafood products by consumers and distributors within the sector, the development and implementation of standards based on environmental, economic, social, and productive pillars throughout the value chain are crucial to improve positive perception of aquaculture by consumers.

This Blue Academy event presented an overview of the main current aquaculture certification schemes and brought together key global/international certification organizations including the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), GLOBALG.A.P., and the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA). In addition, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) presented National Aquaculture Certification Schemes and Standardization Programs for some Asian countries including Vietnam, India, and Thailand. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided a general overview of the recently approved FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture, as a key milestone towards the development of future aquaculture standardization and certification programs, specifically focused on farmed aquatic organisms for food uses.

Key takeaways:

• Certification programs at international, regional, and national levels play and important role in assisting aquaculture stakeholders to maintain sustainable aquaculture at an economic, environmental, social, and technological level.

• The standardization of the aquaculture value chain is still incipient and is yet to be implemented on a large scale in certain countries, production systems and species.

• Application of certification standards is limited by the high cost of certification programs, lengthy certification processes and technical difficulties associated with specific indicators and criteria (especially environmental).

• The aquaculture sector is highly segmented and is dominated by micro, small and medium scale production. Both global and national certification programs must facilitate incorporation of these producers, to enhance true impact of traceability on final product quality derived will not be achieved.

• Aquaculture certification and standards have contributed significantly to improving positive perception of the sector over the years.

• The World Bank encourages actions aimed at standardizing the aquaculture sector throughout the value chain – from hatchery, nursery, grow-out, feed production, processing, to marketing.

• The event recommended that both global and national aquaculture certification schemes incorporate MSMEs while considering social inclusions, gender and youth affairs.

Recording can be accessed here. 

Overview: 

This workshop showcased tools of the Fisheries Sector Assessment Toolkit (FSAT). FSAT is a set of practical diagnostic and analytical tools, the development and uptake of which has been supported by PROBLUE, focusing on capture fisheries but some of which are also relevant and applicable for aquaculture. Participants had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration of the use of two new tools on aquatic food value chains and two previously developed tools, on fisheries infrastructure assessment and local economy-wide impact evaluation using biological information.

Key Takeaways:

• Developed in collaboration with World Bank staff and external partners, most notably the FAO, the FSAT tools help World Bank teams in the design and implementation of fisheries projects. The tools have supporting resources: factsheets and guides, and some have case studies, TORs and budget templates. Some tools have previously been presented and are being taken up in projects. New tools were developed in the last year, especially for assessing and improving fisheries value chains, a fisheries statistical capacity assessment tool, fish stock assessment capability guidance and a fishing module for household surveys.

• The Value-chain, Screening and Rapid Assessment Tools were developed together with the FAO. The first tool is for screening fish value chains based on their feasibility and sustainability, to help decide which value chains to proceed with for an assessment. The second tool is a rapid assessment guide based on the triple bottom line (environmental, social and economic sustainability) of a single value chain with a focus on potential improvements. The tools can be used to assess a range of fish value chains, based on fishing or aquaculture and operating from local to international scales. These can inform fisheries and aquaculture projects within and outside of the World Bank. Ideally both tools should be applied at the outset of project identification and design to help identify potential value chains for full assessment and investments or to better understand the role and function of selected value chains to inform project activities.

• The Fisheries Infrastructure Assessment Tool (FIAT) aims to help strengthen overall performance and sustainability of investments in fisheries infrastructure, encompassing economic, social, and environmental net benefits as well as financial returns on investments. FIAT has been tested by the FAO in the Bahamas in the context of the rehabilitation of fisheries infrastructure after hurricane Dorian and in Mozambique to rehabilitate fisheries infrastructure in the Sofala province, for example.

• Sri Lanka, the Local Economy Wide Impact Evaluation (LEWIE) tool was integrated with bioeconomic fishery models to analyze the impacts of alternative management approaches to various capture fisheries. The impacts analyzed through the resulting Bio-LEWIE model included stock status and fish catch on the biological side, and incomes on the economic side. Management scenarios included the business-as-usual scenario which is mainly open access due to lack of enforcement of existing input and output control measures, and improved management scenarios characterized by initial closure for stock rebuilding and subsequent enforcement of control measures.

Recording can be accessed here.  

Overview: 

This session focused on the sustainable development of the offshore wind sector in emerging markets, including developing countries. It shared good practices and lessons learnt and showcased the tools, analysis, and activities used and undertaken by the World Bank Group (WBG) Offshore Wind Development Program. The audience also had the opportunity to participate in an interactive demonstration of the ‘SCALE’ offshore wind spatial planning tool and learn about the offshore wind experiences in Colombia, India, Philippines, and Vietnam. Developed by ARUP, SCALE is a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) tool that is used to support strategic decision making on offshore wind deployment.

Key Takeaways:

• Offshore wind is now operating in 19 countries around the world and at least thirty other countries are looking to establish their own capacity. For many emerging market countries, offshore wind offers an abundant, large-scale, reliable, and local source of clean electricity. To aid in this global rollout, the World Bank (WB) established its Offshore Wind Development Program with the aim of accelerating the uptake of offshore wind in emerging markets. The Program estimates that there is over 16,000 GW of technical potential for offshore wind in emerging markets, highlighting a vast, untapped opportunity.

• To provide a sufficient volume of finance at an affordable rate, projects in emerging market countries will often need to secure international finance to supplement local sources. To meet the requirements of international lenders and development finance institutions, offshore wind projects will need to align with Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) for environmentally and socially sustainable development. Development that is not aligned with GIIP will likely not attract international lending.

• Led by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), since its start in 2019, the WBG’s Offshore Wind Development Program has supported 24 countries to assess and plan the roll-out of this relatively new renewable energy technology. The Program has been supported by PROBLUE since its inception, with funding focused on improving the sustainability of offshore wind in developing countries.

• The Program supports both governments and industries in emerging markets. This combined approach enables the World Bank Group to provide clients with a comprehensive support package. The Program creates and disseminates knowledge to estimate the resource potential and opportunities across 62 emerging market countries. It also carries out country-level studies in Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, the team offers direct technical assistance to developing countries to support regulatory reform enacted by the government to establish necessary market conditions, auction processes, grid upgrades, and planning.

• The Program, including with financial support from PROBLUE, has also supported the publication of Offshore Wind Roadmaps for Azerbaijan, Colombia, Philippines, and Vietnam and is supporting the development of Roadmaps for Brazil, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Turkiye. These Roadmaps capture possible scenarios for development of offshore wind in emerging markets, considering several strategic and technical factors. They also include a study to identify priority biodiversity values and highlight high level social concerns.

• A presentation was made on the Integrated Environmental and Social Sensitivity Mapping: Guidance for Early Offshore Wind Spatial Planning (or SenMap), a guidance document designed to support government planners in emerging market countries to identify potential areas for offshore wind development with the lowest environmental and social (E&S) sensitivity. It was explained that the resulting outputs – E&S sensitivity maps – can help identify broad, potential areas for offshore wind, at the earliest stages of government-led spatial planning and can support planning for avoidance, directing development away from areas where sensitivity is highest. While primarily a government-led planning tool, SenMap outputs could also be used to inform offshore wind project developers of the highest E&S sensitivities and enable them to select more suitable sites, plan mitigation measures, and integrate cost contingencies into competitive tenders. SenMap could also be used by developers and regulators alike to inform project-specific environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs) by having regional-scale E&S data in advance of more detailed, site-specific data collection efforts.

• There are several existing approaches to strategic and coordinated spatial planning, with different levels of effort and different spatial scales. Internationally recognized and applied approaches include multi-sector marine spatial planning (MSP), Strategic Environmental & Social Assessment (SESA), cumulative impact assessment (CIA) and, to a lesser degree, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The specifics of each methodology vary but identifying and mapping E&S sensitivities during planning, with the aim of avoiding and minimizing the potential for development impacts later, is a common theme.

Recording can be accessed here.  

Overview:

This session provided an overview of the current state of seaweed production and gave the audience a tour of the knowledge platform ‘Seaweed Insights’, a practical guide to global seaweed farming. The session also highlighted recent analysis on seaweed market opportunities for novel products and applications from seaweed biomass and shed light about recent developments in seaweed aquaculture in Tanzania and Madagascar. The session was organized in cooperation with PROBLUE-supported World Bank’s Aquainvest Platform, which aims to identify gaps, innovations, opportunities, and new markets for aquaculture industry to scale up and alleviate poverty and improve global environmental resilience.  

Key Takeaways:

• Seaweed farming can help support a world free of poverty on a livable planet. With its ability to sink carbon, sustain marine biodiversity, employ women, and unlock value chains, seaweed farming demonstrates how development, climate, and nature work together to generate value and uplift communities.

• Over the past fifty years, commercial seaweed farming has grown into a $16.7 billion industry. Driven by an increasing pressure on food and feed supplies, the need for biological alternatives, and a growing understanding of the unique properties of seaweed, new innovations have fostered momentum and excitement about seaweed’s potential globally. Innovators along the value chain are eagerly scaling up seaweed production and developing new applications using seaweed biomass.

• Seaweed Insights is a practical guide designed by Hatch Innovation Services, a team of experts from the aquaculture industry. The platform provides an overview of seaweed production worldwide and introduces the major commercial species, their utilization and their unique supply chain setup. The platform also offers insights from 100 farm visits across the largest seaweed production hotspots globally. This offers practical information on the reality of the seaweed cultivation industry today.

• Compared to Asia, Africa lags behind in seaweed production. Tanzania is the biggest producer of seaweed in Africa (92%). In Tanzania, over 30,000 farmers produce seaweed, and over 80% of them are women. The industry has proved key in improving livelihoods in the country. In Zanzibar, seaweed production plays an important role, representing 7.6% of the GDP. However, the seaweed industry is facing challenges including rising sea temperatures causing diseases and pests affecting the seaweed, which leads to a decreased production.

• Globally, the red seaweed is mainly produced by smallholders who face many challenges, including climate change, limited financing options, living in remote communities, and the lack of marine spatial planning. To catalyze the seaweed revolution, government support, promotion of cultivation, certification, research and collaboration across the supply chain, and increased financing are essential.

• On the East Coast of Madagascar, Ocean Farmers is developing an inclusive aquaculture model based on risk mitigation approach and coastal communities to ensure a growing and sustainable seaweed supply chain.  

Recording can be accessed here. 

Overview:

This event focused on Marine spatial planning (MSP), one of the most effective tools through which the World Bank is supporting client countries in reaching their Blue Economy goals. In the first session, participants learned about the World Bank Marine Spatial Planning for a Resilient and Inclusive Blue Economy Toolkit, developed with PROBLUE support, as well as the MSP country efforts financed by the World Bank. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO also presented their MSP work. The second session was a hands-on interactive workshop using SeaSketch, a web-based application used globally for collaborative MSP.

Key Takeaways:

• The Marine Spatial Planning for a Resilient and Inclusive Blue Economy Toolkit includes a series of guidance notes and factsheets related to the different MSP phases, and the data and tools to inform these efforts. This toolkit closes knowledge gaps and highlights the World Bank’s opportunity to deliver financial and technical support to governments and the private sector. This is essential if countries are to take advantage of investment opportunities to improve food security and livelihoods and strengthen community resilience to natural and economic shocks.

• In Morocco, the World Bank’ Blue Economy program is helping improve integrated management of natural resources, and strengthen institutional frameworks as well as selected sectors for a climate-resilient blue economy in targeted areas. In particular, the program is using marine spatial planning to create a marine protected area for fisheries management.

• World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) in partnership with the IFC have been working on the Offshore Wind Development Program which aims to accelerate the adoption of offshore wind in World Bank markets. PROBLUE is providing financial support to enhance the sustainability of offshore wind in emerging markets. MSP can play an important role in supporting emerging markets develop their offshore wind sectors. However, MSP processes are long-term and require significant resources and capacity.

• UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission is a leading institution promoting science-based, integrated, adaptive, strategic and participatory MSP concepts worldwide. MSPglobal Initiative (2018 - 2021) – co-financed by the European Union – was designed with the objective of developing the new “MSPglobal International Guide on Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning”, which was published in 2021. With the support of national, regional and international partners, the IOC has provided technical assistance to several activities under the MSProadmap and has delivered a number of MSP capacity development trainings to over 500 MSP practitioners from international organizations and national and regional governments.

• Seasketch is a free and open online collaborative platform offering MSP experts tools enabling participatory marine spatial planning processes that are closely tied to the relevant science and information. The workshop participants were able to test and explore planning and survey tools.

Recording can be accessed here. 

Overview:

This first edition of the Blue Academy focused on the application of the Blue Economy Development Framework (BEDF) and the Blue Public Expenditure Review (Blue PER) – integrated analytical tools that help countries defines roadmaps to manage coastal and marine resources sustainably. This is achieved by addressing gaps to improve fisheries governance, reduce marine pollution and promote coastal tourism, while strengthening knowledge. The session looked at how BLUE PER and BEDF are applied in Pakistan, the Caribbean, and Mozambique, with support from PROBLUE.

Key Takeaways:

• The BEDF is a holistic, integrated approach applied at the seascape level, which takes into account the natural assets that underpin the ocean economic activities and aims to help countries transition to a sustainable blue economy.

• In Pakistan, the BEDF approach was used in three studies in order to help the government identify reforms that would realize opportunities and establish priority actions to develop a BE strategy. The studies aimed to inform strategic actions in the sectors of marine fisheries management, aquaculture & value chain development, marine pollution management and developing coastal blue assets. Also, the first Blue Public Expenditure Review for Pakistan was conducted. This applied World Bank Blue Public Expenditure Review (Blue PER) guidelines and serves both as a baseline and an example to other countries.

• In Eastern Caribbean, the BEDF data and analyses were key in helping set up a robust foundation for developing the BE across the region. As a result, many developing policy operations and investment projects are being implemented on the ground.

• In Mozambique, under the MozaZul program, the World Bank’s analytical, technical assistance and communication and dissemination tools are supporting improved data, producing recommendations on investments and policy changes, strengthening capacity in the blue economy, and developing an enabling environment for blue innovation and entrepreneurship.

Recording can be accessed here.