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  1. Social impact bonds

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and Development Impact Bonds (DIBs)

Leading the way with innovative funding mechanisms

Since 2011, we have been at the forefront of advising on SIBs, unlocking new sources of funding to promote social benefit.

We work with a wide range of clients to help develop results-based-finance programmes such as SIBs, driving the creation of key contracts and bringing together the sector’s principal stakeholders to deliver established results. Our clients include specialist private investors, development investment banks, development agencies and foundations. 

We have worked on 60% of the UK’s SIBs and some of our contracts have been adopted by the UK government as sector templates to develop the market. With the model increasingly being adopted globally, we are working on SIBs (and closely related Development Impact Bonds) across different jurisdictions.

To find out more about our work, see the detailed case study here.

Recent work

  • Advising the Education Outcomes Fund on the design and contracting of a $30 million DIB designed to tackle poor educational outcomes in Ghana.
  • Advising Bridges on its investment into two SIBs commissioned by the Home Office designed to improve the integration of refugees.
  • Advising Bridges on its investment into a SIB designed to tackle entrenched homelessness in Greater Manchester.

  • Advising the Education Outcomes Fund on its hosting with UNICEF and template outcomes contracts for use in education and skills based DIBs.
  • Co-chaired a working group with the Government Outcomes Lab to refresh the UK template outcomes contract for SIBs.
  • Advising Bridges in relation to the expansion of its investment in Single Homelessness Prevention Scheme into Norfolk.

  • Advising the Hong Kong government’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund on its first social impact bond with Oxfam Hong Kong to facilitate teaching programmes for non-Chinese speaking children otherwise facing long-term poverty and social exclusion.
  • Advising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a development impact bond in Palestine.
  • Advising the Education Outcomes Fund on its hosting with UNICEF and development of a template for use in results-based-finance programmes.
  • Advising Social Finance in relation to its role as manager of the Skill Mill SIB an innovative new programme aiming to get young ex-offenders into work.
  • Advising Bridges in relation to its investment in three new SIBs which aim to break the cycle of repeated removal of children into care.

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