Results-based Financing in Education for Sub-National Government and School Administrators: A Practitioners' Guide
Authors: Amy Crompton, Arushi Terway and Marina Dreux Frotté
This guide provides advice for practitioners involved in designing and/or implementing a results-based financing (RBF) intervention targeted towards mesolevel actors in education – that is, school administrators and local government (province, region or district) managers – district education officers, school management committees (SMCs) and school directors. This guide is a companion document to a larger study titled Results-Based Financing in Education for Subnational Government and School Administrators: A Conceptual Framework and Practical Recommendations commissioned by the World Bank’s Results in Education for All Children (REACH) programme.
The guide discusses options for how to select the appropriate RBF approach from three core models borrowed from performance-based budgeting (funding-linked performance targets, agency-level performance incentives, purchaser-provider model). It also discusses good practices for how to define results and incentives and how to align stakeholders through a theory of change (TOC) and capacity strengthening that foster a results-focused culture. Finally, this guide addresses considerations for supporting the sustainability of RBF at both the intervention level as well as the education system level.
While this guide aims to provide practical recommendations and advice for practitioners, it should be acknowledged that designing an RBF intervention with meso-level actors is a complex endeavour which calls for the careful consideration of contextual factors.