ECD Social Impact Bond Innovation Fund

The IBIF, a first for the global South, was set up to drive Early Childhood Development (ECD) targets in the Cape. It was the culmination of more than four years of research, design and advisory support delivered to the Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) by the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business.

Early childhood is a period of unparalleled opportunity for promoting and developing human potential. The period from conception through the first five to six years of life is critical for the development of a child’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing. These benefits are life-long – improving education performance, bettering careers and earnings performance, and health.

Using the model of Social Impact Bonds (SIB), which means that governments only pay if pre-determined outcomes are achieved, the IBIF formed a public-private sector coalition to sustainably finance ECD. Commencing in November 2017 and running for three-years, the IBIF worked to improve the cognitive and socio-emotional development outcomes of more than 3,000 children in the low-income communities of Atlantis and Delft, in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

In pioneering the IBIF, the Bertha Centre also partnered with Social Finance UK, and has been supported by the LEGO Foundation and Innovation Edge to develop this project and others.