Outcomes based approaches to locally led development
Lessons learnt from Educate Girls’ Project Maitri
“Outcome based contracting defines the destination then hands over the keys, putting local organisations in the driving seat to define the most effective route to impact. Project Maitri demonstrates that larger NGOs can support the development of both their driving skills and navigation, accelerating their capacity to absorb and use funds to realise change.”
Social Finance International worked with the Educate Girls to capture key insights from Project Maitri, their partnership approach to delivering better outcomes for girls in the state of Bihar. The case study looks at how an outcomes-based approach to funding and technical advice to hyper local organisations, in some of the most vulnerable villages in India, has led to faster, better and more cost-effective outcomes for girls, as they seek to overcome the challenge of gender discrimination and school exclusion.
Awareness continues to grow around the importance of enabling local actors to set their own agendas, develop solutions, and bring their capacities, leadership, and resources to bear to make those solutions a reality.
Project Maitri offers a compelling blueprint for how larger and international NGOs and funders can scale impact by harnessing the capacity and insight of local partners through outcomes-based contracts.
Scaling impact in this way requires a strategic shift away from the traditional focus on operational and financial controls. Instead, outcomes-based approaches give locally led organisations control around how they deliver jointly agreed outcomes for communities on the ground. This requires a reimagining of the role of larger and international NGOs, shifting from direct delivery towards identifying high quality local partners, making data and finance systems accessible to locally led organisations, and providing bespoke coaching for adaptive delivery - new skills that the Educate Girls team developed as part of Project Maitri.
Perhaps most importantly, the case study indicates that outcomes-based partnerships offer real opportunities for CBOs to access funding, build capacity, and scale impact whilst leveraging their local expertise.
“Educate Girls added the most value through their continuous support…in data management and technology…correcting our budget and planning mistakes, as well as providing training and guidance on how to better manage and use data…this not only helped us in executing the Maitri project but also improved our overall organisational capacity.”
Watch Social Finance International’s Louise Savell & Chloe Eddleston, the Educate Girls team and funders discuss this case study at a Government Outcomes (GO) Lab webinar.