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The launch of the world’s largest Education Development Impact Bond

The Launch Of The World’S Largest Education Development Impact Bond

The British Asian Trust is delighted to announce the launch of our $11m ‘Quality Education India’ Development Impact Bond. The launch took place in Delhi, where we were honoured to be joined by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chair NITI Aayog, who represented the Government of India as our chief guest.

This is the largest Education Development Impact Bond (DIB) in the world and we have launched this together with a coalition of partners including UBS Optimus Foundation, Tata Trusts, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Comic Relief, the Mittal Foundation, the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and BT (British Telecom).

With this new and innovative social finance tool, we aim to improve literacy and numeracy skills for more than 300,000 children, drive focus towards outcomes in the development sector and transform the way education is funded in India. While traditional funding streams are under severe pressure, innovative financing mechanisms, such as DIBs, are a complementary tool to attract new private capital and will also play a major role in bridging the financing gap to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

The Trust has now developed key expertise in this area of work and we are looking forward to growing our innovative finance work across South Asia in the coming years. We are very pleased to have been seed funded by DFID for this growth work.

Commenting on the launch, Shri Arun Jaitley, Honourable Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India said,

“On behalf of our government in India, I am delighted to join with this impressive coalition to launch the Quality Education India DIB. This is a very serious group of organisations and people, with the shared aim to improve education in our great country.

This landmark financial instrument applies an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy and will change the lives of over 200,000 children in India by driving up standards in literacy and numeracy. If the potential of this type of funding is unleashed, it could improve the lives of generations to come too. Our Government strives to see the best possible outcomes for the money invested. Every penny spent in this DIB aligns with one goal: improving the quality of education. This type of outcome-based funding will be fundamental to India realising the UN’s ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. Very good luck and I look forward to seeing the successes of this in the years to come.”

Please find a link to the web page for further information on this DIB: http://www.qualityeducationindiadib.com/  and for our work in social finance: https://www.britishasiantrust.org/our-impact/innovative-finance