Rewarding Success: The Global Partnership for Results-based Approaches

Results-based financing (RBF) is the idea that financial support should be contingent on achieving predefined, independently verifiable results. RBF, also known as “pay for success” or “performance-based financing,” is a proven tool of international development. Enshrined in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, it is considered by many to be a gold standard.

The Global Partnership for Results Based Approaches (GPRBA) is a World Bank program at the forefront of testing RBF approaches that combine transformational funding and technical assistance. GPRBA helps improve delivery of basic services in developing countries by promoting lasting, productive, and efficient development approaches. Supported by co-financing from the public and private sectors, this pioneering partnership provides aid to areas and people who need it most, prioritizing recipients based on socioeconomic status.

Here are a few examples from GPRBA’s diverse portfolio:

• A GBPRA project in Morocco leveraged investments of over $30 million to improve access to safe water supply and sanitation services among poor households on the outskirts of main cities. It was the first RBF project in North Africa and the Middle East, benefiting nearly 20,000 households.

• In Bangladesh, the Output-based aid (OBA) Sanitation Microfinance Program is making hygienic sanitation facilities more affordable for rural, low-income households through microfinance. Working with partners, the $22 million initiative is expected to help build 170,000 hygienic latrines for 850,000 people.

• An innovative microfinance pilot in Kenya is offering incentives for service providers in rural and peri-urban areas to rehabilitate and expand water and sanitation infrastructure. Since its inception, the venture has catalyzed $3.4 million in commercial loans for small piped-water systems, and mobilized equity investments of $1.2 million from the community.

• In Nepal, five municipal areas are transforming their approaches to solid waste management (SWM). A $4.3 million GPRBA mechanism is lowering the cost of improving SWM services and increasing the revenue that cities can collect to offset SWM expenditures.