Speaker: Monique Vledder, Manager/HRITF & Senior Health Specialist, The World Bank.
The idea of paying based on results achieved, rather than for inputs, is gaining significant momentum in international development and global health. Results Based Financing (RBF) encompasses a range of mechanisms designed to enhance access to and delivery of social services through the use of performance-based incentives, rewards, or subsidies. The HRITF is a multi-donor trust fund created by the World Bank in 2007 to support Result Based Financing (RBF) approaches in the health sector. The HRITF provides developing country governments and policy makers a greater menu of options to choose from when designing health sector programs. All programs are jointly financed by HRITF and IDA, the World Bank fund for the poorest countries. Over 36 pilots in 31 countries in the last 5 years with a total of US$ 2 Billion in HRITF and IDA funding have helped generate a strong understanding of how RBF based approaches can create greater value for money and help health, nutrition and population programs achieve better outcomes in reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health, and also on poverty, equity and gender issues. This speech presented highlights from select programs and pilots run by the World Bank and its country partners and highlighted key lessons learned.
Speaker: Amie Batson, Chief Strategy Officer, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).
No child should die of a preventable disease, all mothers should have safe births and healthy newborns, and every community should have the tools it needs to thrive. Transformative innovations in new technologies and business strategies are needed to achieve that vision. In addition to developing and commercializing lifesaving health technologies, PATH brings innovations to market dynamics, health systems, collaboration models, and community engagement. Amie Batson discussed system bottlenecks to the widespread diffusion of new health technologies and PATH’s approach to ensuring faster uptake for these technologies. She also highlighted examples from innovative financing mechanisms to create incentives for global health innovation.
Speaker: Aron Betru, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer, Financing for Development (F4D).
Over the past 15 years, development financing has undergone a dramatic landscape shift. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD’s) Development Assistance Committee Official Development Assistance (DAC ODA) as a share of total external development financing has decreased from ~20% to ~10%. Of that aid, up to 28 cents of every dollar is lost due to disbursement volatility and cash flow inefficiency – particularly with respect to global health programs. Fortunately, there is a growing trend that is causing a convergence of both the need for innovative financing approaches and the appetite to deploy them. In line with this trend, Financing for Development’s (F4D) mission and vision as a nonprofit organization is to facilitate innovative financing approaches as a means of increasing efficiency of international and domestic development financing. By advocating for, executing, and evaluating innovative financing solutions, F4D aims to bolster local economic development with long term private sector co-investment.
Speaker: Thierry van Bastelaer, Principal Associate/Scientist – Abt Associates.
Thierry van Bastelaer is Principal Associate at Abt Associates, where he helps design and developthe company’s portfolio of private health finance activities. In addition to his work on healthinsurance and savings in Africa, Thierry is the founder and co-director of Abt’s Risk and Resilience Methods Center, and was named one of Abt’s Senior Fellows. Households living at the Base of the Pyramid demonstrate remarkable skills in dealing with the variety of risks that threaten their health and livelihoods on a daily basis. Too often, however, they are doing so without the benefit of financial tools that, if they were widely available, affordable and flexible, would dramatically decrease these families’ vulnerability and increase their long-term resilience. In particular, insurance products are struggling to keep pace with the increasing costs of health care and the effects of climate change on agriculture. van Bastelaer’s speech examined how a portfolio of inclusive financial products and services—such as commitment savings and microinsurance—are giving low-income families across the developing world more tools to ensure that shocks do not push them further into poverty. Using examples such as health savings, micro health insurance, and index-based weather insurance, he suggests how the combination of technology and financial services has the potential to give low-income families a stronger handle on their economic and personal well being.
Mango Fund seeks to encourage economic development in emerging economies by getting behind local enterpreneurs, especially those that are performing value add actvities within their countries. The impact investment fund provides both capital and advisory services to bolster sustainable growth of these emerging businesses. Student intern Bryce Jones worked on business valuation and the due diligence process. He also worked with portfolio companies to provide business advisory and consulting services.
SNV is an international not-for-profit development organization. Its global team of local and international advisors work with local partners to equip communities, businesses, and organizations with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services. By doing this, SNV empowers these entities to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development. Student intern Tom Sargeantson worked with the organization on its inclusive business investment development in Vietnam, specifically the Vietnam Business Challenge Fund (VBCF).
Community Economic Ventures Inc. (CEVI) is a non-stock, nonprofit microfinance organization and the Philippine arm of VisionFund International (VFI) and World Vision. CEVI has operated for the past 13 years in the Philippines as a key economic development partner to the poor by providing micro-credit, -savings, and -insurance to clients and in areas that the formal financial sector does not reach. VisionFund (VF) improves the lives of children in the developing world by offering small loans and other financial services to families living in poverty. Student intern Saranya Chongrungruang conducted an impact assessment to investigate how the organization could use microfinance to help vicims of Typhoon Haiyan.
Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI) aims to catalyze Indonesia’s entrepreneurship strategies by working in partnership with existing programs and linking aspiring Indonesian entrepreneurs to global developments and investment prospects. To address the issues facing social enterprises in Indonesia, GEPI in partnership with LGT Venture Philanthropy, launched for the second consecutive year, the Smiling World Accelerator Program (SWAP) to actively support and invest in Indonesian social enterprises leveraging venture capital principles and impact investing methodologies. SWAP 2013 sourced and invested in multiple social enterprises up to $50K each. Student intern Nancy Gephart conducted due diligence on several shortlisted portfolio companies.
Druk Holdings & Investments (DHI), estalbished by Royal Charter by the King of Bhutan, holds and manages commercial companies of the government, makes new investments, raises funds, and promotes private sector development. Student intern Jamison McLaughlin designed a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy for DHI and used the principles of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness measurement to shape the policy. McLaughlin’s goal was to develop a framework that could be used by private companies in Bhutan to form their own CSR policies.
Vittana is a Seattle-based nonprofit that facilitates microloans to students in developing countries. Vittana aims to help students worldwide attend post-secondary schools. Donors offer to pay for students’ tuition by lending them small amounts — typically $25-50. Student repayment rate is 99 percent. In Indonesia, Vittana is partnered with the Putera Sampoerna Foundation and has launched its first student loan program targeted at final year university students. Student intern Yuchen Lu built partnerships with the universities and reached out to prospective students.