$11 million development impact bond launched to improve education in India

British Asian Trust and UBS Optimus Foundation have announced the launch of a development impact bond (DIB) worth $11 million for improving quality of education in India. With this launch, the consortium is aiming to improve literacy and numeracy skills for over 3 lakh children. 

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Tata Trusts, The Mittal Foundation, British Telecom and Comic Relief will be raising the funds.

Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India, said, "This type of outcome-based funding is fundamental for driving quality and improving learning outcomes in the education sector."

The programme manager is Dalberg Global Advisors, who will work together with local NGOs to maximise outcomes. Gray Matters India will assess the outcomes of the programme. The technical assistance will also be provided to the programme by the UK Government, through the Department for International Development (DFID).

Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of British Asian Trust, said, "DIB will also enable the not-for-profit sector to think strategically about scalability, sustainability and think commercially to make a positive difference."

Phyllis Costanza, CEO of UBS Optimus Foundation, said, "The Quality Education India DIB will achieve greater scale and also provide scope for innovation by comparing different education programs. DIBs align incentives between different actors. And so they have the potential to shift the development sector to focus on results and bring in substantial new capital to create social impact at a far greater scale."