The world’s first Development Impact Bond in education was created in Rajasthan, India. It provided operational and financial flexibility to Educate Girls, an Indian NGO. The results surpassed the target outcomes, they achieved 116% of the enrollment target and 160% of the learning target at the end of 2018. The model led to more innovations. The NGO is now focused on improving the outreach for harder-to-enroll girls by influencing the communities’ mindset toward education.
In a collective effort, various stakeholders came together to support EG in preparing to scale their model as well as to create benchmarks and a common framework for sector-wide impact.
The EG DIB had five key participants:
The social investor UBS Optimus Foundation (UBSOF) provided the upfront working capital of USD 270,000.
This enabled EG, the local implementer and NGO, to carry out its work on the ground.
The outcome payer, in this case the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), promised to pay back the initial funder (UBSOF) the original amount plus extra returns as long as enrollment and learning targets are met.
The non-profit impact bond and results-based financing advisory organization, Instiglio, provided technical advice during the design, overall project management as well as performance management assistance to EG on behalf of UBSOF.
The non-profit evaluation firm, IDinsight, assessed the improvement in learning and validated the number of out-of-school girls enrolled.
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