Quality Education India Development India Bond (QEI-DIB): stakeholder views on efficiency and effectiveness

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Impact Bonds for Education: Does innovation in financing address equity and quality challenges?

Proposal

In recent years, the education sector in India has been experimenting with using ‘innovative finance’ for achieving SDG4, particularly ensuring access to quality education for all. The success of Educate Girls, the first Development Impact Bond (DIB) on education in the world in Rajasthan, on the one hand, and the reduction of and restrictions on using traditional funding, on the other hand, have led to increased interest among the service providers to explore new forms of financing that are directly linked to the achievement of outcomes. The basic claim of innovative finance mechanisms like the DIB is that when service providers are given the flexibility to pursue the optimal strategies that the field warrants, and when there is focus and clarity on the outcomes to be achieved, there is an efficient use of limited resources as well as effective delivery of results.

The Quality Education India Development Impact Bond (QEI-DIB) is the largest development impact bond on education in the world at 11 million USD. Using a combination of direct and indirect interventions in four states of India, the QEI-DIB aims to improve grade-appropriate learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy. The UBS Optimus Foundation provided the initial risk investment amounting to 3 million USD to service providers specialising in different educational strategies, including Gyan Shala, which worked in affordable private schools in urban slums, and Society for All Round Development, which used a remedial learning program, Kaivalya Education Foundation which developed school leadership, and Educational Initiatives and Pratham Infotech Foundation which used technology for improving learning outcomes. Over 15 partners collaborated to reach approximately 200,000 primary students, with the British Asian Trust acting as a convenor and intermediary and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation as anchor funders. The evaluation conducted at the end of the first and second years showed that overall, the targets were exceeded by more than three times, and children in the QEI-DIB schools were learning twice as fast as those in non-participating schools.

This paper will use existing secondary sources and key stakeholder interviews to understand the following research questions: 1] what did efficiency and effectiveness as two critical value propositions mean in the context of interventions – before the QEI-DIB and during its implementation; 2] how were these operationalised in the day-to-day administrative practices and technical strategies deployed in the field, and 3] what external and internal processes helped or hindered efficiency and effectiveness. This inquiry will enable practitioners and scholars in this emerging area to draw insights into the claims of efficiency and effectiveness and reflect on what contributes to realising these value propositions.

Author

• Archana Mahesh Mehendale, Tata Institute of Social Sciences