Use of social impact bonds in financing health systems responses to non-communicable diseases: scoping review
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Lee, Ta Yu
Hulse, Emily
Atun, rifat
McPake, Barbara
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There is an interest to understand how social impact bonds (SIBs), a type of innovative financing instrument used in impact investment, can be used to finance the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This is the first scoping review that explores the evidence of SIBs for NCDs and their key characteristics and performance. The review used both published and grey literature from eight databases (MEDLINE, NCBI, Elsevier, Cochrane Library, Google, Google Scholar, WHO publications and OECD iLibrary). A total of 83 studies and articles were eligible for inclusion, identifying 11 SIBs implemented in eight countries. The shared characteristics of the SIBs used for NCDs were impact investment companies as investors, local governments as outcome payers, not-for-profit service providers and an average US$2 015 456 private initial investment. The review revealed a lack of empirical evidence on SIBs for NCDs. Conflict of interest and lack of public disclosure were common issues in both the published and grey literature on SIBs. Furthermore, only three SIBs implemented for financing NCDs were meeting all their target outcomes. The common characteristics of the SIBs meeting their target outcomes were evidence-based interventions, multiple service providers and an intermediated structure. Overall, there is a need for more high-quality studies, particularly economic evaluations and qualitative studies on the benefits to target populations, and greater transparency from the private sector, in order to ensure improved SIBs for preventing NCDs.
Date Issued
2021-03-05
Date Acceptance
2021-02-10
Citation
BMJ Global Health, 2021, 6 (3), pp.1-15
ISSN
2059-7908
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Start Page
1
End Page
15
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Global Health
Volume
6
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/3/e004127
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
health policy
health systems
health policy
health systems
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e004127
Date Publish Online
2021-03-05