The Educate Girls DIB exceeded its goals: How did they do it and what does it mean?

WASHINGTON — The first year was a scramble to get the program up and running, year two was full of stops and starts — it wasn’t until the third and final year of the Educate Girls’ development impact bond that things clicked into place. But even with a two-year ramp-up to smooth operations, the impact bond outperformed the goals set.

The Educate Girls DIB, which kicked off in 2015, was one of the first development impact bonds launched. The new model was the result of some in the aid community looking to find new financing tools that could reduce risk to donors and have the potential to bring in private investors. The results, released Friday, are sure to set off a conversation about the funding mechanism, how it works, and what can be learned about the burgeoning field. But there are limits on how much can be extrapolated from this single example.