The future of outcomes-based financing: Transforming results for children

The pandemic has erased years of progress toward improving the quality of life for children around the world. The scope of these challenges is deepened further by reduced funding and an economic downturn, making it imperative to use resources wisely and to harness interventions for social services such as education and health care that work at scale. As policymakers, practitioners, and funders around the world look to tackle our growing social challenges, it is more important than ever to explore innovative and alternative approaches.

Outcomes-based financing (OBF) for international development is at a pivotal moment, with development impact bonds (DIBs) and outcomes funds—two forms of OBF—building  much momentum around education and global health. Two large-scale programs in India came to a close this year—the Quality Education India (QEI) DIB and the Utkrisht maternal and newborn health DIB—and the launch of the groundbreaking Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) in Sierra Leone is on the horizon.

The QEI and Utkrisht DIBs, two of the largest projects in the world, have many lessons to share about what did and did not work at scale, and how to put those lessons into practice in future ventures. Outcomes Funds, a way to scale impact bonds and OBF, have been growing in interest and popularity globally as the development community seeks solutions to global challenges at massive scale. With EOF launching in its first country, Sierra Leone—with other countries soon to follow—there are many considerations to take into account for the OBF community as a whole.

Thank you for joining us for a forward-looking discussion on scale and what is next for OBF in the education and health spaces as we look to transform results for children.