Thanks to an invitation from the World Bank Group in the Seychelles Islands, our project was presented at a Shark Tank session by Estrela Matilde (Director of the Principe Trust Foundation) during the Conference of Financing Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Ocean Economies in Africa (22 to 23 Feb). This conference, bringing together more than 120 participants from all Africa, aimed to advance the agenda of maximizing finance for development in the blue economy, by optimizing the use of scarce public resources and crowding in the private sector. More specifically, the conference aimed to enhance knowledge and highlight innovative solutions on how Africa can maximize finance to support sustainable blue economy initiatives. Our "Community Ideas" initiative was presented to a panel of judges and as an example of small initiatives of participatory approaches and co-management of marine conservation with, and for, the communities. The conference was a success and lots of important contacts and networking were done! #oceans4africa

From January 22 to 27, Litoney Matos, a member of the "Omali Vida Nón" team, attended a Conflict Mediation course ran by the Institute for Certification and Training of Lusophone Mediators (ICFML), at the Catholic University of Porto (Portugal). The purpose of this course was to learn learn practical and theoretical aspects of conflict resolution to facilitate both parties  finding solutions that meet their interests. This course made our team better prepared to deal with challenges (possible conflicts) that may arise in the scope of our activities.