SeyCCAT’s 3rd Round of Blue Grants Fund is now open for Seychelles

Deadline: 15 May 2019

SeyCCAT has launched its third Blue Grants Fund request for proposals (RFP) and invites you to be part of the solution!

Strategic Objectives

Strategic Objective 1: Support new and existing marine and coastal protected areas and sustainable use zones.
- For this call for proposals, they will only support projects that:
  - Contribute research for the design of marine protected area management plans.
  - Provide inputs to management plans for areas with a priority for protection.
  - Contribute to implementation of existing or proposed management plans, e.g., GOSUNDP-GEF Outer Islands Project.
  - Contribute to development of indicators (biological, ecological, and socioeconomic) for management plans and for evaluating effectiveness of marine protection areas.
  - Contribute to improving the decision-making process for management and harvest strategies for data-poor fisheries.
  - Contribute to improving capacity to protected area agencies and increasing management effectiveness.
Strategic Objective 2: Empower the fisheries sector with robust science and knowhow to improve governance, sustainability, value, and market options.
- For this call for proposals, they will only support projects that:
  - Support fishers’ associations and associations seeking to promote and engage in rightsbased fisheries co-management, including participatory monitoring (Box B).
  - Develop “best in class” sustainable tourism practices linked to fisheries campaigns and activities such as minimum size limits, daily bag limits, fish procurement policies (seasonality) & sustainably caught seafood on local menus including recommendations for whole fish vs. fillet.
  - Design, deploy & test new tools and technology for participatory monitoring, information sharing and accessing markets (e.g. Apps to document catch and traceability).
  - Foster consumer awareness of sustainable fisheries practices via traditional and socialmedia channels.
  - Support improvements in the design – and advance the uptake – of Seychelles sustainable seafood label.
Strategic Objective 3: Promote the rehabilitation of marine and coastal habitats and ecosystems that have been degraded by local and global impacts.
- For this call for proposals, they will only support projects that:
  - Rehabilitate nationally important marine and coastal species and ecosystems (e.g., as found in the NBSAP (2014).
  - Develop knowledge to understand the roles that certain key species play in shaping their environment – keystone species (e.g. herbivore and predation).
  - Implement nature-based solutions to enable ecosystems to maintain or improve their provision of goods and services.
  - Support removal of invasive alien marine and coastal species that threaten native species.
Strategic Objective 4: Develop and implement risk reduction and social resilience plans to adapt to the effects of climate change.
- For this call for proposals, they will only support projects that:
  - Support small businesses, particularly locally owned tourism establishments, to engage with multi-sector initiatives (such as connecting local food production with sustainable consumption).
  - Explore and back science and technology innovations to increase resilience and support adaptation to climate change (to minimise climate impacts on local livelihoods and businesses) including
    - increase understanding;
    - implement appropriate adaptation measures;
    - establish long-term monitoring.
  - Advance Seychelles’ ability to secure access to global climate financing.
  - Study the potential impacts of climate change on critical ecosystems, goods and services (e.g. fisheries productivity), and make recommendations on how negative impacts could be addressed to safeguard sustainability.
Strategic Objective 5: Trial and nurture appropriate business models to secure the sustainable development of Seychelles’ blue economy.
- For this call for proposals, they will only support projects that:
  - Demonstrate innovation in the Blue Economy – for example in sustainable businesses in post-harvest fisheries sector, sustainable tourism, renewable energy, environmental services, ocean waste management.
  - Improve fisheries post-harvest / value chain performance and market development opportunities.
  - Enhance capacities (training, research and development) for preparing, articulating and executing sustainability-focused business enterprise models (e.g. for submission to the DBS blue investment fund).
  - Support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and small-scale local investors to develop and access opportunities associated with the aquaculture master plan (landbased and inshore business development).

Note: individual proposals must focus on addressing only one of the above strategic objectives.

Funding Information

The current expectation is that SeyCCAT will award over 10 grants from this request for proposals with a total value of up to US$ 700,000 / SCR 9.5M.

Eligibility Criteria

SeyCCAT’s funds aims to be as open and accessible to all Seychellois. The following categories may submit a proposal to SeyCCAT.
- Any locally-registered NGO
- Businesses
- Parastatal organisation
- government agency
- or citizen of Seychelles.
Proposers must have legally existed and operated in the Seychelles for a minimum of one year.
They encourage applications from partnerships and consortia that can demonstrate a shared vision and appreciation of inter-organisational competencies required to achieve a successful project. We actively seek to support “creative collaborations.”
Overseas-based organisations are not eligible, although proposals from and led by eligible local organisations may include overseas-based partners.
The Board of Directors may decide to restrict the participation of any of the above classes of persons or organisations in any RFP, and this shall be indicated in the scope of each specific RFP.
Proposers are required to include details of qualifications and experience to ensure that a sound judgment can be made concerning the proposer’s ability to deliver the project. Proposals must also be compliant with Environmental and Social Safeguards applied by SeyCCAT.