Organisation: The Government Outcomes Lab
This session brought together some of the most experienced leaders in the field to ask: how can we move beyond pilots and experimentation to harness the potential of outcomes-based funding for social and environmental change at scale? We will anchor the discussion in three core questions:
- What can we learn from the success but also failure to date in using outcomes-based approaches as a catalytic enabler of a broader transformation of systems to be re-oriented towards delivering impact?
- What are the key structural barriers that prevent mainstream adoption of outcomes-based programmes by the public sector and is a ‘blueprint to scale’ possible?
- Do we need to improve what we deliver, how, and who we build outcome-focused partnerships with, or should we simply adjust our expectations on the pace of change?
Our final Big Picture session brough together some of the most experienced leaders in the field to ask: how can we move beyond pilots and experimentation to harness the potential of outcomes-based funding for social and environmental change at scale? During the session, the Chair, Andreea Anastasiu, Executive Director at GO Lab, asked what institutionalising outcomes meant to the panellists and their organisations.
Radana Toner, FCDO, highlighted the challenges in replicating outcomes funds despite having institutional support, while Nicole Pflock, Instiglio, emphasized the gradual nature of institutionalising outcomes-based funding and the necessity of a structure framework for scaling. Dr Amel Karboul, EOF, highlighted the transformative nature of outcomes funds, and noted we need to compare ourselves to the status quo: “I want to be compared to the status quo, not some ideal that doesn’t exist”. Raffaella De Felice, GSG Impact, stressed the importance of shifting political narratives to garner support for outcomes-based approaches, and Aneta Wierzynska, The Global Fund, reminded us that effectiveness is the key to the discussion. She challenged us to consider the following: “Why is it so easy to do the wrong thing and it is so damn hard to do the right thing?".