Results based aid and results based financing: What are they? Have they delivered results?

Mark Pearson, January 2011

There is much interest in the role results based funding might play in scaling up donor support and, at the same time, demonstrating the results of this aid. 

This paper describes the various types of results based funding, how they are supposed to work and discusses some of the lessons learned. It is based on a review of mechanisms managed by global health initiatives, donor countries, recipient countries and non state actors, including some approaches underway in OECD countries.

The paper is based on work commissioned by the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2009.