Organisation: Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab)
This Social Outcomes Conference deep dive session featured academic and practitioner perspectives on the use of social impact bonds (SIBs). The justifications and merits of SIBs are multiple and uncertain: are these tools for driving efficiency, extracting social value, or enabling government to act in different more collaborative or preventative ways?
We heard about the latest comparative research on SIBs in Europe and Latin America, from the University of Oxford’s Vanessa Picker who shared her research on the way SIBs are perceived on Twitter to Celeste Brubaker, who reflected on recent lessons from her work as part of the first outcomes contract for poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond (DIB). Reflecting on the latest narratives around the use of SIBs, and whether they are still relevant, GO Lab Fellow of Practice Richard Johnson concluded “If you pay for outcomes you get more outcomes [as compared to if you pay for activities]; IF the contract is well-designed”.
Listen to the audio recording of the session.
Want to know more about the state of play of impact bonds? Explore our global interactive map to find out data on impact bonds in their various stages of development and policy areas.