Finding innovative ways to attract new sources of development financing is crucial given the pressures on traditional funding streams as we work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. New investors are looking for a performance driven culture of delivery with results-based financial returns. The Development Impact Bond (DIB) seeks to deliver this. With interest in DIBs increasing, the time is right for a discussion of how these kinds of results-based models can contribute to delivering real, sustainable benefits on the ground alongside performance-based financial returns for investors.

The Educate Girls DIB is funding an education programme in Rajasthan, run by the award-winning Indian NGO Educate Girls. Backed by the UBS Optimus Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the independently evaluated three-year DIB programme is wholly focused on outcomes; in this case, the enrollment of out-of-school girls in school and improvements in literacy and numeracy in both girls and boys.

In what promises to be a lively discussion, our panel of experts will explore the opportunities and challenges of the DIB model as well as how to further engage development practitioners and potential impact investors. We use the first-year DIB results to anchor a wider discussion about the potential of new forms of development finance focused on outcomes and impact.