The Outcomes Accelerator announces Cohort 2 winners

The Outcomes Accelerator Governing Committee is thrilled to announce the winners of the second cohort of winning proposals at the Outcome Finance Alliance (OFA) Summit in Zurich, Switzerland. The Outcomes Accelerator is championing organizations leveraging outcomes-based finance to tackle urgent challenges across the globe with a focus on decent work and economic growth (Sustainable Development Goal 8) and climate action (Sustainable Development Goal 13) for its second cohort.  

Following a competitive selection process with over 60 applications from 37 ODA recipient countries, the Governing Committee and Secretariat are thrilled to announce the nine initiatives that have been selected to join the Accelerator this year.

The Outcomes Accelerator is a global initiative to accelerate more effective testing, scaling, and mainstreaming of outcomes-based financing approaches in the delivery of SDG impact. It offers flexible funding, targeted expertise, and networking to enable outcomes-based financing projects to launch. At the policy level, the Accelerator aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of development spending from the public and private sectors, to ultimately achieve the objectives of the SDGs. All proposals are competitively assessed against pre-defined evaluation and eligibility criteria that can be found here.

The winning projects are:

• Circular Economy & Social Outcomes Fund on Plastic: Société Générale will develop a fund to transform recycling in developing countries into a circular economy model. The approach will ensure a steady supply of plastic for waste pickers and build their technical capacity to meet quality standards for corporates through financing and guaranteed purchases. This project builds off an existing pilot in Nigeria with Unilever and WeCyclers.
• Improving employment outcomes for vulnerable youth in Kenya: In partnership with the Government of Kenya and the World Bank, Instiglio will develop an Outcomes-Based Finance instrument as a component of a recently approved World Bank project, targeting 10,000-15,000 youth beneficiaries, with 50% committed to being women beneficiaries.
• Durban: Homelessness to Decent Work Outcomes-Based Contract in the City of eThewkwini, South Africa: The City of eThewkwini will develop a Social Impact Bond (SIB), with the municipal and federal government to support skills training and individualized support to help achieve crucial outcomes for the population, such as higher employment rates, income, housing transitions, and prolonged self-reliance.
• Capturing regenerative outcomes in rice farming in Indo-Gangetic Plains: Varaha will develop an Impact Bond to incentivize approximately 4,000 rice-growing farmers to adopt direct seeding practices across 8,000 hectares of farmland in Haryana. This will regenerate the soil, leading to carbon sequestration, reduced emissions, improved soil quality and water savings.
• PROSPER Kenya – Funding economic resilience through social outcomes markets: Village Enterprise has been working with an emerging social marketplace called the Common Good Marketplace on the issuance of Verified Impact Assets (VIAs). This project aims to market and sell social impact generated through the implementation of Village Enterprise graduation model in Kenya.
• Pull finance mechanism for green cement in Nigeria: In collaboration with the public and private sectors in Nigeria, Instiglio is designing a pull finance mechanism to incentivize the adoption of green cement. This will encourage cement producers to adopt clinker-substituted products in their cement production practices, leading to reduced CO2 emissions.
• Punjab Skills Impact Bond in Pakistan: The British Asian Trust will develop an Impact Bond in partnership with the Punjab Skills Development Fund, engaging directly with the Government of Punjab and with local skills service providers to execute training and employment programmes. This project will deliver improved employment outcomes for 15,000 to 25,000 young people in Punjab, especially women, by enhancing their technical and employability skills.
• Türkiye ICT Youth Employment Social Impact Bond: Bridges Outcomes Partnerships aims to scale up the first Social Impact Bond (SIB) in Türkiye to train long-term unemployed youth, between 18 and 35 years old, in technical and soft skills in the ICT sector. This project will scale up an existing pilot in Istanbul to other regions, in partnership with the government.
• Small-Scale Fisheries Impact Bond in Indonesia and Philippines: The international non-profit Rare will design the scale up an Impact Bond in Indonesia and the Philippines focused on small scale fisheries. This project will use outcomes-linked financing to protect critical marine ecosystems and habitats, while strengthening the small-scale fisheries sector and value chain, which provides food security and livelihoods for fishing communities.

Congratulations to the teams! The Outcomes Accelerator looks forward to collaborating closely with these dynamic initiatives and witnessing their impact firsthand. Additionally, the Governing Committee extends gratitude to all applicants, recognizing their dedication to addressing vital development challenges and presenting innovative solutions. The call for proposals for the third cohort is expected to be announced by the Governing Committee later this year.

The Governing Committee of the Outcomes Accelerator is comprised by its funders, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the UBS Optimus Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK (FCDO), who are supported by Levoca LLC as the Secretariat.

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