Educate Girls on track to deliver on Development Impact Bond

Educate Girls' 2-year results on the innovative financing instrument are reason for optimism.

Development Impact Bonds (DIB) aim to provide new sources of financing to achieve improved social outcomes in developing country contexts. Investors provide external financing and only receive a return if pre-agreed outcomes are achieved. Funds to remunerate investors would come from outcome payers, usually a government agency or a multi/bi-lateral aid agency or a private donor. Financial returns to investors are intended to be commensurate with the level of success. 

The Educate Girls Development Impact Bond, launched in June 2015, is funding a three-year education program in the rural district of Bhilwara in Rajasthan. The model measures progress against agreed targets for the number of out-of-school girls enrolled into primary education and the learning progress of girls and boys in English, Hindi and mathematics for 15,000 children in 166 schools across 140 villages in the district. This DIB aims to become a ‘proof of concept’ for replication and scale-up in the education sector and beyond.

Educate Girls announced the 2nd year results of the DIB in education:

Enrollment: 

• Enrolled 87.7% of the target out-of-school girls
• 54% of girls were over 10 years old

Learning:

• Achieved 50.3% of the target learning gains 
• 84% of learning gains were achieved by children who had spent 2 years in the program
• Larger effects in English and Mathematics than in year one

Based on this progress, the investor has already recouped approximately 40% of the initial investment in year 1, and 76% in year 2. If the performance continues at par, the investor will be able to recoup 108% of their investment at the end of the 3 year pilot, indicating a promising performance despite challenges in launching the intervention on time.