Walking the Walk in Education and Employment

The world continues to be a tumultuous place. We see it in the war in Ukraine, in the effects of the climate crisis, and in the growing number of people who suffer hunger and food insecurity. All the while, disadvantaged students and young people are disproportionally falling behind around the world.

What gave me hope last year was The Education Outcomes Fund team launching the two biggest outcomes funds in education in Ghana and Sierra Leone , giving over 300,000 children a future in which they can live up to their potential, with a special focus on girls. And no, it’s not just talk. We walk the walk, paying 20% more to service providers for delivering on girls’ learning outcomes.?

Our work is already starting to have an impact on children in different communities. The more children, teachers, and social entrepreneurs I meet, the more convinced I am about their potential to create a better tomorrow.

Since our founding, the Education Outcomes Fund has partnered with forward-looking institutions such as 联合国儿童基金会 , Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office , SECO Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung , KOICA , 世界银行 , The ELMA Philanthropies , Imaginable Futures , Atlassian , The LEGO Foundation , Bank of America Business , Hempel Foundation , 瑞银集团 Optimus Foundation, THE APAX FOUNDATION , Bridges Fund Management Ltd. , Jacobs Foundation and Dubai Cares among many others. We have designed and launched programs, while building our institutional capacity to contract and implement large-scale outcomes funds more efficiently and effectively than historic impact bonds.?

In 2022, we built on that momentum through new programs like an Early Childhood Outcomes Fund in a strategic partnership with The LEGO Foundation. This intervention will give hundreds of thousands of children across multiple countries the chance to kickstart their journeys in life on a solid developmental foundation.?

The momentum has continued in to 2023. Earlier this month we signed a partnership with the Tunisian government to establish an employment outcomes fund. The 4-year partnership will use an innovative results-based financing approach to support more young people into employment in Tunisia.?

We are also launching a new Just Transition Fund that will place young people into sustainable employment that protects the planet and ensures a just transition. This continues our collaboration with the 波士顿谘询公司 following our ground-breaking report . The report outlines the steps we can take to activate ‘education for climate action’ as a critical element of global efforts for emissions mitigation, and climate resilience and adaptation.??

We are committed to sharing the lessons we learn in all our programs with practitioners and policy makers around the world to reignite progress toward improving the quality of life for children. We are especially grateful to the The Brookings Institution for hosting a forum on the future of outcomes-based financing on the side-lines of last autumn's United Nations General Assembly meetings. This forum served as the international launch of our program in Sierra Leone and an opportunity to share what we have learned so far on our journey in outcomes-based finance.??

I could not be prouder of the work that we’re doing and the change our partners Street Child , EducAid Sierra Leone , Rising Academy Network , the National Youth Awareness Forum, Save the Children UK , Chance for Childhood , Montrose and many others are making in communities around the globe.?

Finally, we have continued to grow our high-performing Education Outcomes Fund team, from 13 last year to over 30. A team from all five continents: all of them leaders putting their idealism to work and continually inspiring me to be better than the day before.?

I am excited for the journey ahead. Join us and support our work to give children and young people the future they deserve.

#education #employment #skills #outcomesfunding

David Moinina Sengeh