Impact Policy Tracker

Education Outcomes Fund and the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP)

The Ghana Education Outcomes fund is an initiative launched by Ghana’s Ministry of Education, UK’s FCDO and the The World Bank’s Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA), aiming to improve the quality of education in low performing basic education schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability in the country.

Launched through a $30 million programme, the project aims to reintegrate over 70,000 out-of-school children from historically underserved areas and enhance learning in 600 low-performing primary schools. The project builds on the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), a national programme designed to strengthen teaching, school leadership, and accountability.

Highlights

Market building goal: bringing together social investors, NGOs, international and local service providers, and the public sector, the Ghana Education Fund serves as a multi-stakeholder partnership helping to build a pipeline for these types of mechanisms.
Holistic approach to building the educational system: from classroom instruction to system-level accountability, the programme addresses several areas along the provision of education to its citizens. The programme enhances teacher readiness through targeted capacity building, enhances school management by offering learning grants and invests in robust accountability systems, including a national learning framework. These efforts are supported by dedicated technical assistance, institutional strengthening, and a monitoring and evaluation framework, positioning the initiative as a comprehensive model for education reform.

Government’s Role:
Market Participant

Country:
Ghana

Policy Type:
Outcomes partnerships

Year: 2023

Responsible Institution:
Ministry of Education of Ghana, World Bank, UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Education Outcomes Fund

Outcomes partnerships

What are outcomes partnerships?

Outcomes partnerships are innovative funding mechanisms that link payments to the achievement of measurable social or environmental outcomes, rather than to the delivery of predefined services. They typically involve three core parties: a government or public entity acting as the outcome payer, a service provider delivering the intervention, and a third-party investor supplying upfront repayable finance. The investor is repaid, partially or fully, only if the agreed outcomes are achieved. This structure shifts financial risk away from the public sector, encourages performance-based service delivery, and enables more flexible, adaptive approaches to addressing complex social challenges. It underpins instruments such as Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), Development Impact Bonds (DIBs), Career Impact Bonds, and outcome funds.

Outcomes partnerships have emerged from pioneering efforts in the UK and were developed in response to the limits of traditional, one-size-fits-all service delivery, especially in sectors like health, education, and employment. They have helped improve public sector effectiveness (delivering up to 9x of public value for every $1 invested), mobilise private investment for the public good, and strengthen performance management through learning and adaptation. Outcomes partnerships rest on three key principles: 1) collaborative design, where stakeholders co-create shared goals; 2) flexible delivery, allowing for real-time learning and local adaptation; and 3) clear accountability, with transparent reporting on tangible, person-centred outcomes.