From left to right, Samuel Thevasagayam (Gates Foundation deputy director of the livestock team), Rohana Subasinghe (co-founder and director of FUTUREFISH), Anna Patel (programme manager for FUTUREFISH), and Michael Phillips (co-founder and director of FUTUREFISH) © FUTUREFISH
FUTUREFISH is pleased to announce that they have signed a contract with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support development of the foundation’s Fish and Aquaculture Programme in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. With our mission to connect science and insights with networks and investments to build and grow sustainable aquaculture, we look forward to developing this work.
"We founded FUTUREFISH to help connect innovation and investment with the diverse actors in aquaculture value chains, especially in overlooked geographies," noted Dr Rohana Subasinghe. “We look forward to co-developing impactful interventions and investments to increase productivity, profitability and inclusivity of aquaculture with the support of the foundation.”
The startup, founded by Dr Rohana Subasinghe and Dr Michael Phillips at the beginning of 2022, aims to provide innovative, sustainable and scalable solutions for the aquaculture industry in Africa and Asia. FUTUREFISH is led by industry and thought leaders – both founders have received some of the highest awards in aquaculture – and will use their experience to identify and evaluate high leverage opportunities in sustainable aquaculture for the foundation's portfolio.
“At a time when hunger and poverty are on the rise, it is so timely to see the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focus on aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” said Phillips. “It is a great privilege for FUTUREFISH to be given the opportunity to explore impactful aquaculture investments that will benefit food and nutrition security, smallholder productivity and livelihoods, women's empowerment and climate resilience."
Commercial pond farming of Nile tilapia in the Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia © FUTUREFISH
FUTUREFISH is committed to building a solid basis of principles using their extensive networks of public and private partners for the foundation’s aquaculture efforts. This first major project for FUTUREFISH reflects the organisation’s commitment to supporting positive and sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes from the aquaculture sector that benefit food and nutrition security, livelihoods and marginalised communities.
