Funding for Impact: How 'Payment by Results' Could Revolutionize Development Funding

Photo Credit: NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

A pioneering new approach to funding social development projects has completed its first year – with promising results. Nearly four million girls, between ages 6 and 13, aren’t attending school in India. That’s a big problem. Development economists have long known that educating girls is one of the fastest ways to improve the economic outlook of the world’s poorest economies. Studies show that every girl who stays in school goes on to earn at least 10% more income every year in her future and is far less likely to be married early and far more likely to raise children of her own who will themselves go to school and go on to better jobs. More girls in school, therefore, creates a boost to the economy that in the long run can help break the cycle of poverty.