This activity had two phases: .
  Phase 1 –  Assessment of OBA in fragile states – with summary of experience,  including the factors for success/failures, and remedy actions, and recommendations for designing OBA programs in fragile states.
  Phase 2 –  Project Identification  – early leads for the project pipeline.

This  activity commemorated GPOBA’s 10th  year anniversary through a series of OBA  knowledge products, communication tools, and a learning event produced by the GPOBA team. The general theme  across  all  products  was the concept of the evolution of GPOBA over its first 10 years and its  impact  on  the to date 4  million  beneficiaries  as well  as  providing  a  glimpse  on  the  future  of OBA. These knowledge products focused on best  practices  and  lessons  learned in OBA projects  and related  results-based  financing (RBF) initiatives.

The activity closed as planned, meeting all deliverables including knowledge dissemination of knowledge products related to the 10th Year Anniversary Conference such as a sector brief, video on a decade of experience, and promotional material. Also, the documentation of Nepal Biogas project lessons was delivered.

This  two-day training event  and  business  development  meetings  were organized by  the  GPOBA  Knowledge  and Learning team and conducted by OBA experts. The targeted audience was AusAid Headquarters staff in Canberra. The training event focused on building   awareness,  developing pipeline, and disseminating  operational  knowledge of OBA within the development partner’s community.

The objectives of the training is to: 1) Teach on the design and implementation of OBA and SIBs; 2) Assist the three governments, through embedded clinics, to draft the concept notes of their own initiatives using results‐based approaches. Government representatives submitted in advance their project outlines that they wished to work on during the workshop.

A joint team of GPOBA and WB Leadership, Learning and Innovation group travelled to Krakow, Poland, on September 22‐27, at the invitation of the Polish, Czech and Lithuanian governments, to hold a workshop on results‐based  approaches,  Output‐Based  Aid  (OBA) and Social Impact Bonds (SIB) in particular. The three governments requested assistance in developing their own RBF initiatives in the social sectors, mainly as part of   the   European   Social   Fund   projects,   and   in infrastructure   sectors.   The   25   participants   at   the seminar   included   representatives   from   the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Development, Krakow Regional  Labor  Office,  Czech  Ministr of Labor and Social  Affairs,   European Social   Fund   Agency   of Lithuania,  and  one  representative  of  the  European Social Fund Agency of Belgium.

The seminar has three main objectives: (i) to communicate to participants the OBA mechanism and how it has been used in water and energy projects to extend basic services to poor; (ii) present specific case studies to show the variety of applications of these mechanisms, its benefits and results; and (iii) incentivize the audience to present their project ideas where the OBA approach could be applied to identify potential projects and partnerships.

GPOBA organized a session on OBA approach for access to water within the World Water Week. This session was well received and the organizers invited GPOBA to do a longer session in the next World Water Week in August 2015.

GPOBA partners with ODPs, sharing experiences and lessons learnt about OBA and playing an advisory role to provide support at the institutional and operational levels to enable ODPs to mainstream OBA in their country programs. OBA experts focus on advisory work aimed at transferring OBA knowledge and capacity to staff and country teams from ODPs.
 

The project will identify and map the major players in results-based financing (RBF), understand how the scope of RBF has evolved and the current recognized definition, and analyze general trends in RBF. The work will include a specific component on hybrid projects that combine RBF with PPPs and other specialized instruments. The analysis is designed to expand GPOBA’s network and generate opportunities for GPOBA to collaborate with important RBF thought leaders and practitioners to share knowledge and experiences, and develop a baseline of information on the RBF universe. The outcome of the assignment will be a report or a presentation.

The activities were completed and the funding was fully disbursed in the previous reporting periods. The timeline was extended from June to December 2015 to embed the materials in a range of OBA Center of Expertise activities and the GPOBA strategy.

This activity consists of five main areas chosen to stimulate innovation amongst OBA/RBF practitioners on OBA/RBF concepts and potential projects: crowdsourcing, competitions, ideas/innovation submissions, knowledge silo-breakers (World Bank’s mechanism for facilitating collaboration), and hackathons (competition for graphic designers/software designers whose contribution can be used for results monitoring, civic engagement and social accountability). 

In this reporting period, innovations from Indonesia’s Local Government Decentralization Project were highlighted through two podcasts and an e-zine. The project improved reporting and accountability of the government of Indonesia's intergovernmental transfer system for the infrastructure sector. Also, GPOBA hosted the fourth annual "Inn-OBA-tions Awards" in January 2017, where the Nepal Village Micro Hydro Project was presented with the top prize for its innovative use of RBF. The RBF instrument was linked to greenhouse gas reduction as a result of the micro-hydro plants for remote mountain communities. 

This application focuses on GPOBA’s overall Knowledge Management, Learning and Innovation (KMLI) strategy as well as the “Collaboration” component involving developing, refining, maintaining, monitoring, and improving upon collaborative tools for knowledge flows and exchanges with OBA implementers (external and internal), donors, and external stakeholders using GPOBA experience and data.

A Working Paper was prepared to summarize the Knowledge Management, Learning and Innovation supported by this activity in 2015-2017. GPOBA Knowledge: Strategy and Collaboration Working Paper was prepared to serve as a record of activities and key lessons. The KMLI Strategy was formulated effectively with positive results. Collaboration component was an important pillar of the KMLI approach with regards to community networking and bringing together practitioners to share knowledge through activities or products. The supported KMLI activities aligned GPOBA with the new World Bank approaches to collaboration which in turn enabled GPOBA to better use platforms/blogs, events and learning activities within the World Bank.