WASHINGTON, December 8, 2023 – Tuvalu will gain resources and support to strengthen the management of its fisheries, one of the country’s highest sources of income, and to create new jobs in the sector with support from a US$13 million grant approved by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors.
Fishing and fishing access rights delivered more than half of Tuvalu’s national revenue between 2015 and 2018. The Pacific Islands Regional Oceanscape Program —Second Phase for Economic Resilience in Tuvalu, will support Government-led efforts to strengthen fisheries policies, improve national and regional coordination with key fisheries stakeholders, and boost sustainable community-based resource management and protection. The program will also create new job and livelihood opportunities in small-scale fishing in outer islands and services related to tuna fishing.
The program, or TV PROPER, builds on the first phase of work delivered through PROP, which supported the strengthening of institutions responsible for oceanic and coastal fisheries management and coastal habitat protection in Tuvalu and Pacific-wide. The program will contribute to national, and regional goals of strengthening management of sustainable oceanic and coastal fisheries.
“A thriving blue economy will be vital to Tuvalu’s, as well as other Pacific Island Countries’, economic prosperity,” said Stefano Mocci, World Bank Country Manager for the South Pacific. “We’re pleased to support these Government-led initiatives through TV PROPER that will ultimately boost Tuvalu’s economic and climate resilience and deliver positive impacts well beyond the country’s fisheries sector.”
The grant is funded through the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the world’s most in-need countries. In addition to work in Tuvalu, the World Bank has been providing support for ocean resources in Federated State of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga, and is supporting the regional Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.
The World Bank works in partnership with 11 countries across the Pacific and Papua New Guinea, supporting 93 projects totaling US$2.8 billion in commitments in sectors including agriculture, aviation and transport, climate resilience and adaptation, economic policy, education and employment, energy, fisheries, health, macroeconomic management, rural development, telecommunications, and tourism.
