The competition partners and participating organizations in the Coastal Fisheries Initiative, are committed to supporting effective coalitions among companies, nonprofit organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders.
The competition seeks innovative solutions from coalitions that address overfishing, focusing on coastal fisheries in four countries: Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Peru. Proposed solutions must seek to reduce overfishing and address the tragedy of the commons through improved coordination among fishers and increased collaboration across stakeholders.
Where fish stocks are already degraded, solutions are required to include biological restoration in ways that protect the wellbeing of those affected by reduced fishing needed to rebuild the fishery to productive and sustainable stock levels. Solutions may work toward increased post-harvest value of fish to create jobs and generate higher incomes—without catching more fish. Competitors may propose new models of industry structure and practices or innovative financing mechanisms to improve coordination of fishing activities and collaboration of parties.
The competition aims to mobilize the collective power of fishing communities, businesses, investors, and governments through coalitions to offer innovative mechanisms and methods that promote the sustainable use and management of coastal fish stocks.
The tragedy of the commons is a metaphor coined by biologist Garret Hardin in 1968 referring to a situation in which individuals with access to a shared natural resource (or common) act in their own interest and as a result deplete the resource. When facing the use or potential overuse of a common natural resource, individuals act in their own short-term best interest, and disregard the harm it could cause to the environment or common good. In open access fisheries, all the conditions for the tragedy of the commons exist with an unrestricted number of fishers, unfettered by any limits on their access, extract an increasing share of fish resources until the fishery is severely depleted. Fishers tend to have little incentive to limit fishing effort in open access fisheries management regimes, as they know that if they do not catch the available fish, someone else probably will.
For this competition, coastal fisheries include all wild-capture fisheries within the Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZs) of a country.
The competition is open to coalitions of organizations or individual organizations seeking to form or join coalitions with no size or regional restrictions. Organizations must be legally established entities (profit, non-profit, academic) in their respective countries. We encourage ideas from local organizations, including informal groups and networks, community groups, businesses and service providers. Individual organizations can apply, but to be eligible to be selected as a winner or runner-up, the individual organization will need to be a member of a coalition. The contact person submitting the application must represent a non-government organization (business, fishing community or non-profit entity). You can find out more by reading the eligibility criteria.
A coalition means three or more collaborating organizations to include representatives from two or more of the following stakeholder groups: fishing and coastal communities, businesses, and the non-profit sector. Furthermore, at least two of the coalition organizations must have ongoing operations in the target competition country during the competition. Coalitions may also include other actors such as technical assistance providers, civil society organizations or other stakeholder types, and will ideally demonstrate experience collaborating with or endorsement of government.
Yes, the competition is open to organizations from all over the world, but the solutions need to address overfishing in coastal fisheries in Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Peru, and/or Indonesia, as outlined in the competition details. You can find out more by reading the eligibility criteria.
Yes, you can submit more than one application, and you can be named as a member of a coalition on more than one application. Each application must be submitted separately and needs to be different from the other solutions you have submitted.
Yes, both established and newly formed coalitions can apply to the competition. As we are looking for innovative solutions, you will need to explain how your coalition differs from, builds on what is already out there, or has yet to be applied in one of the four countries of competition. It’s important for us to understand that it is a new or improved solution to addressing the competition problem statement. More details are provided in the evaluation criteria.
Intellectual property rights of applications will be owned by the competitors but must be made available on public licenses that allow re-use without restrictions (for software solutions, use the Mozilla 2.0 or MPL). Summaries of applications may be made publicly available on the solutionstooverfishing.org website and attributed to the individual organization or coalition as its creator and intellectual property right owner. Please see the Official Terms and Conditions for more information.
Yes, you can send an e-mail to info@solutionstooverfishing.org and request for your application to be removed.
Not for this competition. We are specifically sourcing solutions that address overfishing, focusing on coastal fisheries in Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Peru, or Indonesia. The solution may address other issues in coastal fisheries in the four countries but must seek to reduce overfishing and address the tragedy of the commons through improved coordination among fishers and increased collaboration across stakeholders.
A virtual information session will be held for Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Peru in their official language (Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, and Spanish) with one additional session held in English. The sessions will be recorded and posted to the solutionstooverfishing.org. The questions asked during the session will be added to FAQ. Follow #solutionstooverfishing on social media.
You do not need to do anything after you submit your application. The Competition Team will be in touch if you are eligible to receive coaching and mentoring to improve your application and reapply. Winners and runners-up will be notified in July 2022.
Coaching and mentoring will be provided by the Competition Support Team that includes technical experts.
Competitors that pass the eligibility screening can receive coaching and mentoring. The coaching and mentoring process is intended to help competitors to strengthen their solutions, which may be resubmitted once before the end of the coaching and mentoring period, May 31, 2022 mid-night Washington, DC.
Coaching and mentoring is highly encouraged but is not a requirement.
Eligible competitors will have only one opportunity to resubmit their applications by May 31, 2022 mid-night Washington, DC.
If based on coaching or other factors, a coalition decides not to continue in the competition process together but one or more of the organizations involved is interested in forming a new coalition they should contact the Competition Support Team (info@solutionstooverfishing.org) to determine if they can continue in the coaching process with a newly formed coalition or reapply as a new coalition. If the Competition Support Team decides the new coalition needs to reapply or if the solution and coalition vary significantly from the initial application, the application would be moved back to the initial eligibility screening step.
You can implement the solution through your coalition. The World Bank will disseminate summaries of your solution so that other coalitions seeking to address overfishing can benefit from this knowledge. Please see the Official Terms and Conditions for additional details.
The knowledge sharing event is a virtual event during which the World Bank will announce the competition winners and runners-up. The event will provide the opportunity to learn about what works in different regions and to explore opportunities to implement solutions in other settings.
Attending the knowledge sharing event is a requirement of participation. The event will provide you with the relevant information, skills, and contacts to help build an effective coalition. If there are extenuating circumstances that prohibit attendance, we will of course discuss this further and reserve the right to make exceptions.
You will gain access to additional acceleration and capacity development support to strengthen your coalition and accelerate your solution - such as a review of their business and strategic plans or financing strategies, and introductions to donor and investors. Your solution will be featured in a short film designed to promote your coalition and solution to potential partners, funders, businesses, and other constituents. Your coalition and solution will be featured in a write-up and promoted on the competition website solutionstooverfishing.org, newsletter communications, and social media postings.
E-mail us at info@solutionstooverfishing.org. While waiting for a response, we encourage you to read the full competition details carefully.
