The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) is the only multi-sector collaboration connecting the finance and insurance sectors, governments, multilateral organisations, civil society, and academia to pioneer finance and insurance products that incentivise investment into coastal and ocean resilience, and a regenerating ocean through Nature-based Solutions.
The mission, by 2030, is to activate at least $500 million of investment through finance and insurance products to build the resilience of 250 million climate vulnerable coastal people in the Global South.
ORRAA is delivering system-wide change by growing an investable product pipeline and generating the transformative investment instruments, vehicles and policies that contribute to a regenerative and sustainable ocean and blue economy. These solutions enable coastal communities and the Ocean to adapt and thrive, creating greater economic, social and cultural resilience.
ORRAA’s Sea Change Impact Financing Facility (SCIFF) is a collaborative effort to develop an open ocean financing architecture designed to drive at least $1 billion of private investment into coastal and ocean ecosystems, with a focus on the Global South, by 2030. This will provide a springboard from which to mobilise at least $2.5 billion of broader finance capital.
The SCIFF complements ORRAA’s work to grow an investable product pipeline from the ground-up, by developing investment vehicles to finance a regenerative and sustainable blue economy that bridge the space between grant funding and investment finance. It also works to integrate sustainable blue finance into broader climate and biodiversity finance. This will be crucial in making investments in planetary health – both on land and at sea – second nature.
SCIFF’s financial instruments and platforms mutually re-enforce each other to build a capital market for the ocean, building investor confidence and the critical market infrastructure for capital to flow at scale into the regenerative and sustainable blue economy.
Prior to ORRAA, Melissa served as Head of Ocean Finance at the Minderoo Foundation and as Program Manager of the Ocean Finance Initiative at the Asian Development Bank. She has also designed and led ocean finance programs across the Pacific. Melissa holds degrees in chemistry and marine science, oceanography, and a PhD in marine conservation finance.
Previously, Tanya supported developing countries across Asia and the Pacific on ocean‑climate resilience, sustainable blue economy initiatives, regional economic corridors, and trade facilitation, mainly with the Asian Development Bank. She also managed maritime trade operations with the Jebsens Group.
Her work sits at the intersection of science, policy, finance, and community action—advancing ORRAA’s mission to build a regenerative, sustainable ocean economy that supports nature, people, and livelihoods.
