Financing Impact: Practical Insights on the Use of Impact Bonds to Achieve Social and Environmental Outcomes

If it’s not a bond, then what it is? Join us for a candid discussion about impact bonds, a unique form of results-based financing (RBF) that brings together public and private sector finance and expertise to achieve development outcomes. Under an impact bond model, private investors finance an intervention and are repaid by either the government or a donor upon the achievement of pre-defined outcomes. Impact bonds are often used when working with non-state providers with liquidity constraints and can be leveraged by governments who wish to fund innovation with reduced risk.

This session brought together global experts in the impact bond space to provide a high-level overview of impact bonds globally, as well as drill deeper into the World Bank’s early experience with this instrument.

The webinar featured three pioneering case examples, including:

• South Africa Wildlife Conservation Bond (the “Rhino Bond”)
• West Bank and Gaza Finance for Jobs Project (F4J)
• Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP)

Chair

• Jason Zhengrong Lu, Lead Operations Officer, World Bank Group

Presenters and Panelists

•  Emily Gustafsson-Wright, Senior Fellow – Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution
•  Jared Lee, Chief Programs Officer, Education Outcomes Fund
•  Elisson Wright, Senior Environmental Finance Specialist, World Bank Group
•  Sophie Dong, Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank Group
• Marinella Ariano, Finance Consultant, World Bank Group