Educate Girls Development Impact Bond
Author: Marina Dreux Frotté, supported by NORRAG
UBS Optimus Foundation (UBS Optimus) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) engaged with Educate Girls (EG), an Indian non-governmental organization (NGO), through the world’s first development impact bond (DIB) in education. The EG DIB was set to test a new model of results-based financing mechanism for improving social outcomes in international development—more specifically, to test the application of DIBs to improving the enrollment and educational outcomes for girls in India. UBS Optimus invested the upfront capital of USD 270,000 for the implementation of EG’s project, and CIFF paid for the enrollment and learning outcomes. The project ran for three years from mid-2015 until mid-2018 and surpassed both of the impact bond’s educational outcome targets.