As GPRBA explores expanding its activities with its new Outcomes Fund, GPRBA has recently partnered with the UK's Government Outcomes Lab (GoLab) in share insights in knowledge exchanges, among them the annual Social Outcomes Conference 2021 (SOC2021) held on September 9-10, 2021.
GPRBA Program Manager Maitreyi Das moderated a "Fireside Chat: Driving an Outcomes-Focused Development Agenda in India" (@ 24:35), one of the panels of the "Evidence and Insights from India's Experience with Paying for Outcomes" regional spotlight session co-hosted with GoLab by the British Asian Trust. This SOC21 side discussion included key actors from the Indian Government, service providers, outcome payers, researchers, and intermediaries shared evidence and learning from current projects and those in design and development. (View session slide presentation)
Two GPRBA staff, Inga Afanasieva (Sr. Infrastructure Specialist) and Jessica Lopez-Taylor (Operations Officer), have been designated as GoLab "Fellows of Practice" and both presented on the second day of the conference ways in which results-based financing can be one of the tools to achieve investors' and government officials' goals to improve social outcomes.
Inga Afanasieva spoke first during the session "Adventures in Awarding the Outcomes Contracts" which considered some of the challenges and solutions using this financing tool -- including a new template outcomes contract, a new guide, and lessons learned from case studies. The session also considered the fundamental public policy reasons behind entrenched administrative processes in public organizations and how an outcomes focus may achieve important underlying objectives such as effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability.
Jessica Lopez-Taylor spoke in a subsequent session, "Making Sense of the Global Evidence on Outcome-Based Contracting Approaches " in which discussants presented the preliminary findings of the Global Systematic Review on Social Outcomes Contracting launched by the Government Outcomes Lab and Ecorys in January 2021. This review explored whether, when, where and how outcomes-based contracting approaches deliver improved impact when compared to more conventional funding arrangements.
