Outcomes Funds and Impact Funds

The Education Commission, Chaired by Former UK PM Gordon Brown, and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment have come together under the chairmanship of Sir Ronald Cohen to catalyze the establishment of a $1 billion Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East (EOF).

The EOF aims to help transform educational attainment in the region and achieve SDG 4*. It will do so by pooling grant funds from aid, philanthropic and private sector donors, to pay as pre-agreed attainment targets are met by pay-for-success programs, financed through development impact bonds (DIBs).

There is a growing body of evidence that this approach has huge potential to address many historic challenges, by aligning incentives around outcomes, fostering innovation and flexibility in service delivery, and attracting new sources of private capital.

The EOF will seek rapid scale-up of innovative interventions in areas such as Early Childhood Development (ECD) or ed-tech, that can strengthen state education provision, and help low income countries ‘leapfrog’ from their existing level and quality of education provision.

The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) and India Impact Fund of Funds (IIFF) are twin impact funds currently being established in India. The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment is incubating both Funds through their early stages of development.

The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) will support improved learning and educational outcomes across India with focus on poor and low-income students in government and affordable schools, including early childhood interventions, literacy & numeracy in primary school, and, employability of students after high school. Investors providing risk-bearing impact capital in these projects will be repaid by the IEOF on accomplishment of pre-contracted outcomes. The $1 billion IEOF, raised from philanthropists, international aid organizations and CSR contributions, makes it possible to attract $700 million of impact capital for impact enterprises and non-profits, through professional fund managers and Development Impact Bonds (DIBs).

The India Impact Fund of Funds (IIFF) is a “wholesaler” of impact debt capital to catalyze India's Impact Investment sector, in a way inspired by the UK’s Big Society Capital. A GSG initiative in partnership with UNSIF, its aim is to unlock long-term, affordable debt to finance intermediaries and impact enterprises. IIFF will help achieve UN SDG Goals and Indian government’s priorities. Its funders will include development finance institutions, institutional investors, Indian diaspora, family offices and high net worth individuals in India. IIFF aims to use its $1 billion of debt finance to “leverage in” matching finance with impact intermediaries.

The Latin America Fund of Funds (LIFF) is in the design stages of development. The Fund will be a sector-agnostic wholesaler fund providing patient, long term impact debt capital to support the underserved community in the region. It will be structured as an SDG-aligned 12 year fund (until 2030), with a primary focus on poverty reduction. It initially aims to develop the intermediary market in 7 main regions: Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Mexico & Peru. Modeled on the $1 billion India Fund of Funds, LIFF aims to raise capital from DFI's, institutional investors and philanthropic funders whilst working closely with local governments to ensure an enabling environment for the impact investment sector to thrive in the region.