| Engaging with Evidence | Resilience in outcomes-based partnerships and key considerations for Covid-19 recovery

For the sixth session of our Engaging with Evidence series, we brought together academic and practitioner perspectives to reflect on the role of outcomes-based financing and impact bonds in building resilient services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 has exacerbated gaps in financing and delivery of public services. Across the world, there is a need to respond to growing demand pressures but governments’ abilities to do so are constrained by adverse effects on already-stretched public finances and government operations. While outcomes-based financing and impact bonds have recently gained traction as helpful tools, can their strengths be channeled towards post-pandemic recovery?

We invited leading experts to reflect on the resilience of outcomes-based contracting during Covid-19 and their role in post-pandemic recovery. This discussion was built on recent research from the Government Outcomes Lab and the World Bank, discussing the opportunities these tools can bring as well as complications that need to be addressed.

Resources

• World Bank Group, 2021: Outcome-Based Financing for Service Delivery: with key considerations for the recovery from COVID-19
• Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Southern California: Social impact bonds 2.0?: Can impact bonds help to cure "social long Covid"?
• The Brookings Institution: What happens in an outcome-based financing model when a major crisis hits?
• Blog (Tanyah Hameed, GO Lab, 2021): How can impact bonds help build back better?