Knowledge and Learning Brief
Lessons from the Field: From Local Innovation to Scaled Investment
Over the past four years, ORRAA has supported 50 projects in 30 countries, building the resilience of more than 500,000 climate vulnerable coastal people in the Global South, 45% of whom are women.
We have activated $139.9 million of investment, with each $1 leveraged to activate $4 -$6 of additional capital.
In, ‘Lessons From the Field: From Local Innovation to Scaled Investment’, we shine a light on twelve lessons we’ve learned along the way. The brief identifies what is required from policymakers, financial institutions, philanthropies, investors, and intermediaries to move from local pilots to replicable and scalable investment in ocean and coastal resilience.
ORRAA’s experience shows that moving from local innovation to scaled impact requires more than capital alone: it depends on locally led design, enabling policies, fit-for-purpose financial instruments, risk-sharing and insurance tools, stronger market infrastructure, and long-term support that helps projects move beyond pilot stage. It also requires recognising that different solutions, sectors, and geographies need different pathways to scale, and that not all resilience outcomes will follow a linear path to commercial investment.