13 years ago, Instiglio began with a bold idea in Colombia: Could Outcome-Based Financing (OBF) redefine how governments achieve impact? Today, this is a global movement.
From our roots in Latin America to partnerships across different continents, it has been humbling to help reshape how public funds drive measurable change, proving that when governments are equipped with the right tools, they can unlock unprecedented impact at scale.
A Historic Milestone for Colombia: Global Leadership of the OBF Movement
Colombia’s selection as host of the OFASummit2025 is a testament to its visionary leadership in the outcomes financing movement. The country has not just adopted OBF but has over the years redefined what is possible for public sector innovation.
From pioneering the developing world’s first Social Impact Bond to embedding and establishing an Outcomes Fund within a public institution, Colombia has consistently broken new ground. The country’s inclusion of OBF in consecutive National Development Plans (2018-2022 and 2022-2026) and the landmark CONPES 4067 policy framework demonstrate unprecedented government commitment to outcomes-focused governance, not as isolated experiments, but as institutionalized systems for impact.
Building a Movement from the Ground Up
As Daniel Uribe said in the conference, since 2012 Instiglio invited a lot of stakeholders to think differently. Multiple visionary leaders became partners, allies, and friends (e.g. BID Lab, SECO Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, and Fundación Corona who fostered a vibrant OBF ecosystem), and started unlocking a huge potential that we believe is unstoppable today.
Although our journey has not always been smooth, over time trust and credibility were built. Now that seed has spread throughout Latin America and has moved overseas to Africa and Asia. We have had the pleasure of working with governments in LAC, Africa, and Asia to transform public services. Our greatest pride comes from witnessing how deeply these approaches have taken root and are reshaping systems across regions.
We could not agree more with César Buenadicha: ‘Global challenges are scaling, we need to scale OBF to scale our ability to address these challenges. It is nice to be pioneers, but that is in the past. We need to ensure outcomes finance is mainstreamed -not a small innovation- and used at scale to show it can address the world’s greatest challenges ‘cost-effectively’.
As we reflect on these 14 years, we are grateful to the partners who have made this journey possible: Prosperidad Social, Departamento Nacional de Planeación, Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, Alcaldía de Cali, Alcaldía de Medellín, and many others that have bet on this bold idea and started changing the rules of the game.