The UK Government’s Blue Planet Fund (BPF) represents a significant investment in marine conservation globally, aiming to tackle marine biodiversity, climate change and poverty together.
This side event, hosted in collaboration with OPM, will share practical learning from BPF-funded programmes, spotlighting how evidence can best help address the real-world programming challenges in this area.
Event focus
Learning for impact
How do we make sure ocean programmes stay focused, flexible, and effective?
The session will explore how logic models and strategy frameworks can best support programmes to tackle multiple objectives (for example, biodiversity, climate and livelihoods) and help teams stay on course while adapting to real-world complexity.
We’ll explore how reflection, evaluation, and strategic learning can sharpen impact, especially when tackling big, interconnected goals like ocean health, climate resilience, and community wellbeing.
Balancing coherence with diversity
How can we measure success in ocean development when every place, partner, and project is different?
We’ll consider how we can find shared goals (such as reducing poverty, building resilience, and driving transformation change) while respecting the diversity of local contexts. Using real examples from the Blue Planet Fund, we’ll look at how to define and measure success in a way that helps connect the dots without oversimplifying the picture.
Event format
The 60-minute session will begin with presentations from the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) alongside Itad, who are supporting (with OPM) the monitoring, evaluation and learning for the BPF.
This will be followed by a moderated panel discussion to provide a diversity of perspectives from organisations involved in delivering BPF programs.
What is the Blue Planet Fund?
The BPF is the UK government’s main vehicle to support developing countries protect their marine ecosystems and reduce poverty through the sustainable management of the ocean and its resources. BPF activities are funded under four thematic areas: marine biodiversity, climate change, marine pollution, and sustainable seafood.
The Fund is distributed through 11 programmes across six priority regions: South and Southeast Asia, West Africa, East Africa, Latin America, Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and Pacific SIDS. The Fund supports a range of actors, including the World Economic Forum, Blue Ventures, UNDP, the World Bank, and World Fish.
Read more about the Blue Planet Fund on the UK Government website
