Original articles
First social impact bond for the SAMRC: A novel financing strategy to address the health and social challenges facing adolescent girls and young women in South Africa
Abstract
A social impact bond (SIB) is an innovative financing mechanism to attract investors to social programmes traditionally funded by governments. In this article, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the authors describe the SAMRC’s first foray into this new world of financing through a SIB to improve the health and quality of life of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). The AGYW SIB is in its preparatory phase and is scheduled for implementation in 2020. The authors describe the mechanism, including financial flows and the process of customising the SIB to meet the needs of AGYW, focusing on HIV prevention and treatment and the prevention and management of unintended pregnancies in schoolgoing AGYW. The authors outline an approach to designing the package of interventions, the metrics associated with such a programme and the business model. It is hypothesised that the proposed approach will lead to an improvement in programmatic outcomes, monitoring and evaluation tools and cost-effectiveness, and will develop key learning data for the future use of SIBs in health service delivery.
Authors' affiliations
F Abdullah, Office of AIDS and TB Research, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
T Naledi, Desmond Tutu HIV Research Centre, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Division of Public Health Medicine and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa
E Nettleship, Social Finance, London, United Kingdom
EL Davids, Cochrane Centre, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; Adolescent Health Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Lieve Van Leeuw, Office of AIDS and TB Research, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa;Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
Sindisiwe Shangase, Office of AIDS and TB Research, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
M Ramburuth, Office of AIDS and TB Research, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
N Majola, Office of AIDS and TB Research, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
L Dudley, Burden of Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
M Nyirenda, Burden of Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
C Mathews, Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
T Kredo, Cochrane Centre, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
A Kinghorn, Perinatal HIV Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
G Gray, Office of the President, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
S de Witt, Bertha Centre for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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Date published: 2019-12-05
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