Impact Policy Tracker Policy

MAS Pago por Resultados Programme



MAS Pago por Resultados (formerly known as SIBs.CO) is Colombia’s pioneering programme aiming to promote further uptake of social impact bonds and results-based financing. Led by the Social Prosperity Department (DPS), in partnership with BID Lab, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and Fundación Corona (a member of Impacto Colombia, GSG Impact’s NP in Colombia), the initiative marked a turning point in how public resource are mobilised to solve Colombia’s most pressing social issues through public-private partnership and social innovation. The DPS played a central role not only in launching the programme but also in shaping Colombia’s broader results-based funding ecosystem.

The initiative was purposefully structured around three core components:

  1. Promoting outcomes-based finance mechanisms and pay-for-results tools, focusing on co-financing employment results for vulnerable and conflict-affected communities through outcomes contracts designed with government co-funding of at least 50%.
  2. Market-building, which supported local capacity development, strategic stakeholder mapping, policy engagement, technical assistance and the design of financial and legal structuring tools to ensure scalable, high-quality contracts.
  3. Knowledge-sharing and scaling which involved carrying out case studies, developing design tools, and promoting national and international learning exchanges.

SIBS.Co launched three pioneering social impact bonds to date: Empleando Futuro (the first SIB launched in a middle-income country), Cali Progresa con Empleo, and Bono de Innovación en Emergencia. Together, these instruments demonstrate the feasibility of results-based funding in Colombia and laid the groundwork for the creation of a national outcomes fund, the Fondo de Pago por Resultados.

Highlights

  • From national to local innovation: A key innovation of the MAS Pago por Resultados programme was the collaboration across government levels. The first social impact bond, Empleando Futuro, was led by the national government and helped establish technical, legal and operational frameworks for results-based employment programmes. These foundations directly informed the second bond, Cali Progresa con Empleo, which was the first to be commissioned by a local government in Colombia. Cali’s city administration leveraged tools, pricing models and legal structures from the national pilot, adapting them to local needs. This continuity enabled smoother implementation and showed how national experience can catalyse local innovation in social policy.

  • Market building as a goal: The technical and legal assistance provided through SIBs.CO was key to shaping an emerging outcomes-based market in Colombia. By guiding public entities through the design and contracting of SIBs, technical assistance played a key role in transferring knowledge, building confidence in these models, and enabling informed decision-making. This support not only helped public agencies serving as co-payers understand the financial and legal implications of results-based contracts, but also laid the groundwork for future replication.

Government’s Role:
Market Participant


Country:
Colombia

Policy Type:
Outcomes partnerships

Year: 2016

Responsible Institution:
Social Prosperity Department, Corona Foundation, IDB Lab, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)

Outcomes partnerships

What are outcomes partnerships?

Outcomes partnerships are innovative funding mechanisms that link payments to the achievement of measurable social or environmental outcomes, rather than to the delivery of predefined services. They typically involve three core parties: a government or public entity acting as the outcome payer, a service provider delivering the intervention, and a third-party investor supplying upfront repayable finance. The investor is repaid, partially or fully, only if the agreed outcomes are achieved. This structure shifts financial risk away from the public sector, encourages performance-based service delivery, and enables more flexible, adaptive approaches to addressing complex social challenges. It underpins instruments such as Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), Development Impact Bonds (DIBs), Career Impact Bonds, and outcome funds.

Outcomes partnerships have emerged from pioneering efforts in the UK and were developed in response to the limits of traditional, one-size-fits-all service delivery, especially in sectors like health, education, and employment. They have helped improve public sector effectiveness (delivering up to 9x of public value for every $1 invested), mobilise private investment for the public good, and strengthen performance management through learning and adaptation. Outcomes partnerships rest on three key principles: 1) collaborative design, where stakeholders co-create shared goals; 2) flexible delivery, allowing for real-time learning and local adaptation; and 3) clear accountability, with transparent reporting on tangible, person-centred outcomes.

For more information, visit GSG Impact’s reports, Shifting Gears - Challenges in scaling outcomes partnerships in government and strategies for success and Tying funding to results, and Oxford University’s Government Outcomes Lab website and its latest report “The evolution of social outcomes partnerships in the UK”.