DEVEX & UBS Optimus Foundation: Accelerating impact: COVID-19 and the future of outcomes-based financing
Coinciding with the 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Devex and UBS Optimus Foundation hosted an event to explore the next frontier for outcomes-based financing and social impact bonds. Instiglio’s Co-founder and Managing Partner, Avnish Gungadurdoss was invited to share the lessons learned designing and implementing Results-Based Financing approaches in uncertain times.
The speakers invited were: Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF; Maya Ziswiler, Executive Director, Programs and Social Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation; Phyllis Kurlander Costanza, Head UBS in Society and CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation; Dia Martin, Managing Director, U.S. Development Finance Corporation DFC.gov; Maitreyi Bordia Das, Manager, Global Programs, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice World Bank; and Avnish Gugadurdoss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Instiglio. Adva Saldinger, Associate Editor & Senior Reporter for Devex, was the moderator.
Avnish began by explaining how Instiglio has adapted to meet and overcome the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. His message was intended to encourage all attendees to continue building an outcome-based ecosystem during these uncertain times. “Results are much harder to achieve and we need to achieve them more than ever” — said Avnish.
Risk management in contracts was a prominent topic during the day. Much more risk has fallen on providers and investors, which is why Instiglio has been working to try to distribute the risk among the parties to be more fair. A key idea shared by Avnish was the importance of maintaining integrity in results and therefore keeping the bar as high as it has been. The risk of lowering the bar is very real, we have to be careful not to fall for those challenges.
“In this crisis we need to do more with less”
During the event, Avnish shared some learnings from Instiglio’s work. We have been working to find digital means and methods to create outcome-based financing instruments that can efficiently source the most cost-effective innovations to address the scale of the crisis we are living through. The work we’ve done with the Government of Colombia was mentioned. He highlighted the importance of performance management for public resources. “Governments are being pressured to achieve results in a very transparent way, they have a need for bigger and more sophisticated performance management systems.” — Avnish explained
Finally, he invited the attendees and the rest of the panelists to work in a more collaborative way. For the upcoming years he pictured more organisations working together in order to strengthen the link between citizens and governments. “The work done so far is necessary but not sufficient to mainstream a widespread government demand for outcome-based mechanisms.” — he said.
If you missed it or want to watch again the conference, it was recorded via Zoom.
Find it here.
Check out Devex’s Blog Post
