Dear all,

I look forward to joining this webinar next Wednesday even though (or because!) I know very little about results based financing for sanitation so far.

I welcome you all to use this thread to already now pose any questions you may have about this topic to the speakers and also to use it after the webinar to continue the discussion. Perhaps you would also like to share your own successful or unsuccessful projects with results based financing here?

The first question that I - as a novice - had, was "is results-based financing the same as output-based aid (OBA)?". The easy answer is: no.

In the Castalia report that Pippa mentioned above (www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/2177), there is a nice overview on page vii with the definitions:

+++++

Results-Based Financing (RBF) is an aid mechanism where payments are made to service
providers upon verification of the delivery of desired outputs, or the performance of
desired behaviors.

RBF needed to be distinguished from three closely related mechanisms:
- Payment for Results (PfR): PfR provides loan disbursements to governments upon
verification of desired outputs. These disbursements are loans to governments, rather
than grants to service providers.

- Public-Private Partnership (PPP): Governments contract with private firms to provide
services, such as through concession or performance-based contracts for operations
and maintenance, and may pay for services provided under the contract.

- Viability Gap Funding (VGF): Donors provide upfront grant contributions to cover gaps
between what customers will pay and what providers need to be paid, instead of
providing output-based subsidies.

There are various types of Results-Based Financing. The three main types of RBF used in
WASH are shown below.

Type of RBF:

Output-Based Aid (OBA) - In OBA projects, service delivery is contracted out to a third
party—public or private—which receives a subsidy to complement or replace the required user contribution.

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) - CCT projects provide cash payments to poor households
that meet certain behavioral requirements. Note: We had a discussion about CCT started by Madeleine here on the forum not long ago: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/164-fi...and-sanitation#11185

Voucher Programs - In voucher projects, a consumer receives a redeemable voucher from a Government or donor agency which can be exchanged for a specified good or service.

++++++

Another thing that I thought could be useful to point out is that some of these topics have Wikipedia pages already, for example:
Conditional Cash Transfers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_cash_transfer
Output-Based Aid (OBA): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Output-based_aid
Payment by Results: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_by_Results

I can't judge whether these pages are good or not, as it's not my area of expertise and as I haven't read them carefully yet (I still plan to do so). Perhaps as part of this webinar process, folks could look at these pages and make improvements or state on the talk pages what improvements are necessary. Perhaps we could also insert here and there relevant sanitation project examples (with references to projects, and hyperlinks to sanitation) so that people reading up about these finance mechanisms are also pointed towards sanitation as a possible application area.

What do you all think about these suggestions?

Elisabeth

Our final speaker for the above webinar is Professor Robert Chambers of the Institute of Development Studies in the UK.

Robert Chambers is a leading development practitioner and scholar and has been one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute and marginalised at the centre of the processes of development policy. Robert’s current concerns and interests include professionalism, power, the personal dimension in development, participatory methodologies, teaching and learning with large numbers, agriculture and science, Seasonality Revisited, and Community-Led Total Sanitation.

We have invited Robert to the webinar to bring a wider development perspective on results based finance. In 2014 he wrote a passionate blog in response to the UK’s Department for International Development’s Payment By Results Policy “Perverse Payment by Results: frogs in a pot and straitjackets for obstacle courses” , is available by clinking on the link.

Another good read is Duncan Green’s blog (of Oxfam GB) “Should NGOs jump on board the Payment by Results bandwagon? New research suggests proceed with caution.”

Registration details
Title: Results based financing for sanitation – do the costs outweigh the benefits?
Date: 29th April 2015
Time: 13:00 (UTC/GMT) - i.e. 09:00 in Washington DC, 14:00 in London and 20:00 in Hanoi. Please check your equivalent time here: bit.ly/1EyaZGn
To register click here: www.susana.org/webinar-registration

We look forward to seeing you there!

Dear Susanne,

yes it is still possible to register.
Simply click here and fill out the form.

See you at the webinar!

Regards, Lasse (on behalf of the SuSanA secretariat)

I'd now like to introduce the second speakers of the above webinar from Castalia Strategic Advisors (Washington DC office) who were commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to do a review of Results Based Financing in WASH, available here .

We are lucky enough to be joined by both David Ehrhardt (Chief Executive) and Wil Goldenberg (Analyst). Castalia will participate in the webinar in two ways:

First, they will provide a general overview of what we mean by ‘Results Based Financing’, defining terms and setting the scene for our webinar.

Second, they will present their perspective and insights from their Review of Results Based Financing in WASH on what we know and don’t know on the questions: "Do the costs outweigh the benefits of results based financing for sanitation”, and “what are the right conditions for it to work?"

We are very pleased to have them both on board!

Watch this space for updates of the last, but by no means least, final speaker of our webinar – Mr Robert Chambers of the Institute of Development Studies.

In the run up to the webinar we will be sharing relevant background resources on behalf of the speakers.

The first of our speakers, we are delighted that Minh Chau Nguyen and Per Ljung of Thrive Networks will join us to speak on their East Meets West (Vietnam) Community Hygiene Output Based Aid (CHOBA) Program. We are welcoming Thrive Networks / East Meets West back to continue a conversation on Output Based Aid that we started via webinar in 2014.

We invite you to view this short video of CHOBA program in Vietnam :



You can watch the previous CHOBA webinar here .

And further details of the CHOBA (Vietnam) program can be found here .

Watch this space for details of our second speakers David Ehrhardt and Wil Goldenberg of CASTALIA Strategic Advisors in the next few days!

Dear colleagues,

Please join us for a webinar on 'Results based financing for sanitation – do the costs outweigh the benefits?’ on Wednesday 29th April 2015 at 13:00 (UTC/GMT) where three speakers with very different backgrounds will discuss what, from their perspective, we know and don’t know on the questions of "Do the costs outweigh the benefits of results based financing for sanitation, and what are the right conditions for it to work?"

We have planned the webinar to have ample time for discussion - the speakers will only give short inputs (5 minutes each). We will have an excellent panel of speakers:

• Minh Chau Nguyen and Per Ljung of Thrive Networks, speaking on the East Meets West (Vietnam) Community Hygiene Output Based Aid (CHOBA) Program in Vietnam. Minh Chau is now with Results for Development Institute
• David Ehrhardt and Wil Goldenberg of CASTALIA Strategic Advisors speaking on their review of Results Based Financing in WASH.
• Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies offering his view from a wider development perspective on Results Based Financing.

This webinar, open to all, is being organised under the Knowledge Management initiative of the Building Demand for Sanitation (BDS) program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The webinar will be moderated by Peter Feldman, and supported by Pete Cranston and myself of Euforic Services . It is being hosted by Stockholm Environment Institute (using Adobe Connect) and the SuSanA secretariat.

Registration details
Title: Results based financing for sanitation – do the costs outweigh the benefits?
Date: 29th April 2015
Time: 13:00 (UTC/GMT) - i.e. 09:00 in Washington DC, 14:00 in London and 20:00 in Hanoi. Please check your equivalent time here: bit.ly/1EyaZGn
To register click here: www.susana.org/webinar-registration

In the run up to the webinar we will be sharing relevant background resources on behalf of the speakers. Watch this space!