Development Impact Bonds Evaluation

Development Impact Bonds Evaluation


The overall aim of this evaluation is to understand how the application of the impact bond mechanism could work across future DFID activities, drawing on the experiences of four current Development Impact Bonds (DIBs).

We are interested in understanding whether a DIB model influences the behaviours of stakeholders such as providers to improve programme performance; the extent to which a DIB leads to more cost effective and better performing projects; whether it improves the outcomes of activities; and the extent to which a DIB enables more providers to become involved in Payment by Result projects.

A primary purpose of the evaluation was to generate learning and recommendations. As such, we have built a strong learning component into the evaluation design which involves a series of learning workshops.

In terms of methods, we are using process tracing in order to compare the DIB projects with similar interventions. This allows us to identify the ‘DIB effect’ and understand the extent to which differences can be attributed to the DIB.

The first report of the project can be found here.

The findings of this evaluation are discussed in a blog written by the project lead James Ronicle. This can be found here.

30 June 2020

1 minute read



Key Experts

James Ronicle

Associate Director