In this paper, we closely examine the case of the Marker Wadden, a nature restoration project with recreational opportunities in the Dutch lake Markermeer. The Marker Wadden – a mud island concept – has been constructed using locally sourced building materials (sediments from the lake) and is designed to withstand natural dynamics such as storms and waves. Lack of funding and financing has been repeatedly discussed and identified as a key barrier to implementing and upscaling ecological restoration, or Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in general. This highlights the importance of studying a unique case, such as the Marker Wadden, where this well-documented barrier has been overcome. We aim to identify the financial arrangements made and how they came about. We adopt the rounds model (a policy analysis theory), apply evidence triangulation, and employ a theoretical framework that captures an institutional perspective on financial barriers. We find the Marker Wadden project to be an example of public and private co-funding for ecosystem restoration. We further find revenue generation from recreational activities leads to partial cost-recovery, and non-public funding sources are unlocked due to the involvement of an NGO. We also find the pre-investment phase to be instrumental in overcoming financial barriers during later (implementation) phases. We surface the main drivers that led to funding for the Marker Wadden project, reveal opportunities for investment planning for NbS, and expose trade-offs in terms of (democratic) equity, efficiency, and environmental outcomes resulting from the combined public, private, and philanthropic co-funding arrangements used.

This paper examines frugal innovations as processes, products and systems that affect the resource constraints that are typical for many developing countries. The focus is on the impacts of mobile phone technology-induced frugal innovations’ on the resource constraints and how these influence productivity, public services provision and inclusiveness. The effects are illustrated with the help of the case of the M-Pesa payment system and more specifically two particular services that use M-Pesa, i.e. Kilimo-Salama, an agricultural microinsurance through mobile phones and M-Farm, market access services for small farmers. The results reveal positive impacts on private sector productivity and public services provisions due to, among others, reduction of transaction length and hence costs. With regard to inclusiveness it is likely that in the short term the application of IT-induced frugal innovations will not be inclusive. In the longer term the inclusiveness of these innovations can be expected to increase.