📋 Tender Overview
Innovative financing mechanisms for education are expected to help reaching SDG 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education. However, limited research has been conducted on these mechanisms. IFE-2-LNOB will assess specific innovative financing mechanisms such as impact bonds and a social lending scheme with regards to their effectiveness and cost efficiency towards quality education of marginalized children and young adults.
Country/region Topic Period Budget
Africa
Global
Education
Tertiary education
Education policy
01.10.2021 - 31.03.2032
CHF 4’050’000
Background International and national, public and private actors are exploring innovative financing approaches in education. They have gained a lot of popularity in the past decade, because there are hope and claims to raise additional funds from private and public sources and/or to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing development funding. However, little is known on whether and how these innovative financing approaches can actually keep their promise on attracting additional funds (private and public), on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing education funding, and to what extent they contribute to achieving the SDG 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education. In order to not only follow a hype, but to make informed choices and decisions, Switzerland/SDC, other governments, policy makers, donors and impact investors engaged in improving education need further evidence on the opportunities and limitations of these innovative financing mechanisms. The project Impact of Innovative Financing for Education to Leave No One Behind aims at producing this evidence. It will assess a social lending scheme[1] and four impact bonds[2], implemented by Volta Capital and UBS OF, the two implementing partners of this research Consortium. Further members of the Consortium are the University of Cape Town, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, and the Graduate Institute and Development Studies in Geneva (latter has the lead of the Consortium). [1] Lending for Education in Africa (LEAP) (ongoing) by Volta Capital.
[2] Impact Bond Innovation Fund (IBIF) 1.0 (concluded) and IBIF 2.0 (new) by Volta Capital; Quality Education India (QEI) Development Impact Bond (ongoing), and Education Outcomes Fund Development Impact Bond Fund (EOF DIB) (new) by UBS OF.
Objectives More and better use of funds towards inclusive and quality Education for girls and boys, adolescents and young adults, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, in low and lower-middle income countries.
Target groups The international education community and the international impact investing community (donors, governments, policy makers and impact investors). Interdisciplinary research community. Over 850,000 marginalized and vulnerable children, adolescents and young adults (more than half of them girls and young women) will benefit from the five innovative financing mechanisms’
