The last decade has seen outcomes-based partnerships being formed for the first time in a growing number of countries around the world. From tackling issues around youth employment and child welfare to improving health and education, these partnerships have taken a variety of forms. But what conditions make a country or an ecosystem, including its service providers, “ready” for an outcomes-based partnership? What capabilities could be built over time to prepare it?

For this Engaging with Evidence session, we will explore the key conditions and competencies that enable the successful delivery of outcomes-based partnerships. In the session we will take stock of existing frameworks for assessing the readiness of government and service providers to engage in outcomes-based partnerships, and share findings from a recent review conducted by Social Finance UK in partnership with the Government Outcomes Lab. The review builds on existing evidence and practice to develop two coherent and comprehensive frameworks for assessing the readiness of eco-systems and service provider organisations respectively, to engage in outcomes-based partnerships. Providing tools to map the necessary competencies is crucial in identifying and better understanding gaps and in informing a substantive capacity-building agenda for policy-makers, donors and funders to use.

We will be joined by some of the key stakeholders of this research and a group of experienced practitioners in the field who will reflect on these frameworks, as well as other existing guides and frameworks. We will also discuss what this emerging research means for using outcomes-based contracting for systems strengthening globally. We will explore with the panellists how we can strengthen these ecosystems, and so grow the potential that outcomes-based partnerships possess to improve public services and social outcomes.

We hope to facilitate knowledge exchange among countries and provide informed and practical considerations for setting up outcomes-based contracts in contexts around the world. As always with these webinar sessions, we will discuss practical implications for policymakers and practitioners and welcome comments and questions from the audience throughout the session.

Register for the webinar.

For more information, visit the Government Outcomes Lab website.