Outcomes incentivised funding improves results for both enrolment and learning for girls facing exclusion from school in rural India

Educate Girls is a 9-year old NGO in India that has successfully enrolled 120,000 girls into rural government schools and improved learning for 600,000 children. A new funding approach called a Development Impact Bond (DIB)... [ view full abstract ]

Educate Girls is a 9-year old NGO in India that has successfully enrolled 120,000 girls into rural government schools and improved learning for 600,000 children. A new funding approach called a Development Impact Bond (DIB) or Pay for Success Contract (PFS) has significantly improved results due to an increased focus on outcomes.  The contract involves a donor who commits to pay for certain social outcomes and only pays for results, an investor who provides working capital to the service provider as a low interest loan and a third party evaluator. Educate Girls, the service provider, has seen a shift in organisational culture due to the flexibility and focus on results provided by the financing structure and a much greater level of accountability to each child as the programme scales.

Enrolling and keeping girls in school in India is a complex issue with no ‘one size fits all’ solution. To overcome deep seated patriarchy and cultural barriers and ensure inclusive education requires a wide range of approaches, adaptive management and rigorous performance management. Field workers require the ability and flexibility to adapt to each girls’ circumstances. Prescriptive and restrictive grant funding has proven ineffective in many cases, whereas training staff to problem solve and adapt has enabled field workers to enrol more girls. Ensuring that data serves front line workers rather than management and funders enables a much closer focus on results and has improved learning outcomes in three subjects.

This paper will share year-two results of a 3-year RCT being conducted in the 166 rural schools where girls from tribal communities and scheduled castes struggle to engage in education. The paper will discuss the ground realities, challenges and opportunities offered by the use of results based funding in inclusive education.