Project: Poverty alleviation for women in Bangladesh
State of development: Current
Stage of development: Scoping
Type of instrument — Impact Bond: Yes; Outcomes Fund: Yes; Social Impact Incentives (SIINC): No; Social Impact Guarantee: No; Payment-by-results (no pre-financing): No; Technical Assistance and Market-building program: No; Other: 
Part of a larger outcomes-based financing program: Yes BRAC has been selected by Global CItizens and NPX as one of its partners to launch a $25M Impact Bond for poverty alleviation, with the ability to absorb $100M.
Expected launch date: Q2 - 2023
Total expected project development time: 0-6 months
Expected length of project (years): 4
Rationale for using outcome-based finance: This instrument provides for larger amounts of capital that are steady, reliable and transformational, and flexible capital explicitly linked to outcomes. Puts NGOs in the driver's seat. Bangladesh has now moved to a middle-income status, has diminishing grant/ODA funding, and needs to recover from the COVID pandemic. Much of BRAC’s testing, piloting and scaling was achieved through its Strategic Partnership Agreement with FCDO and DFAT, which has now decreased. BRAC is seeking Innovative Finance mechanisms to unlock more funding, especially risk capital from investors to both test new models, iterate on existing models and achieve scale, either directly or through government, with whom BRAC has a long-standing relationship. DIB addresses the specific socio-economic context in Bangladesh and BRAC’s relevant response.
Key challenges to launch: Currently in the process of sourcing outcomes funding
Role of the domestic government — Outcomes funder: No; Service provider: No; Member of project committee: No; No formal role: No; Other: Not determined yet
Service providers identified and selected — Request-for-proposals: No; Direct contracting by outcome funder/investor/intermediary: Yes; Provider-led deal development: No; Other: No
Feasibility study: No
Proposed financing instruments — Debt: Yes; Equity: No; Guarantee: No; Grant: No; Other: No
Technical assistance grant: No — 
Estimated maximum potential outcome payment: 25000000 USD
Social/developmental challenge: An additional 24 million Bangladeshis are living in poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Communities in remote areas, socially excluded women, disabled, and indigenous people were most impacted. Millions of Bangladeshis lack the ability to provide a sustainable livelihood for their families and do not have access to sufficient food, income, health care and education services. Additionally, they lack the skills, networks and resources to engage productively in the economy.
Expected intervention model: BRAC will be using its evidence-based, multifaceted Graduation model providing a two-year intervention --cash, asset transfer, training, mentoring, linkages to markets to underserved women. This would result in an additional: 1) 50,000 women-headed families permanently above the poverty line 2) Increased participation by women in household decision making 3) Increased productive assets and savings for the poorest Bangladeshis.
Policy sectors — Employment and private sector development: No; Education: No; Social protection: Yes; Criminal justice: No; Health: No; Agriculture: No; Environment and climate change: No; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: No; Energy: No; Humanitarian: No; Early Childhood Education: No; Other: 
Secondary SDG goals: 1,5,10
Target population: Rural women-led households earning less than $1.90/day.
Targeted number of unique service users or beneficiaries: 50000
Unit type of targeted beneficiaries: Individual
Country income classification of beneficiaries — Low-income: No; Lower-middle-income: Yes; Upper-middle-income: No; High-income: No
Notes: Data for this pipeline project was last updated in April 2022
Delivery location: Bangladesh