Results-based Financing for Childhood Centers in Bogotá
Results-based financing improved early childhood education quality and efficiency in Bogotá's childhood centers. Instiglio and the District Secretariat for Social Integration (SDIS) implemented an RBF mechanism across 35 childhood centers, using performance-linked payments to drive attendance, continuity of care, and classroom quality.
Partners
Abstract
Results-based financing improved early childhood education quality and efficiency in Bogotá’s childhood centers. Instiglio and the District Secretariat for Social Integration (SDIS) implemented an RBF mechanism across 35 childhood centers, using performance-linked payments to drive attendance, continuity of care, and classroom quality. Data analysis revealed critical areas for refinement: strengthened verification systems, alignment of metrics with child development outcomes, and sustained staff training. These findings demonstrate how incentive design must balance operational metrics with pedagogical impact to deliver sustainable improvements in early childhood services at scale.
The Challenge
In 2024, Bogotá’s District Development Plan found that fewer than 300,000 of the city’s nearly 570,000 children had access to formal care, limiting early childhood development outcomes. To close this gap, the District set a goal to add 30,000 new care spots, with the SDIS responsible for creating 8,000.
SDIS has historically operated a network of childhood centers, many co-managed with nonprofits, to deliver quality, sustainable services. However, scaling these efforts has been constrained by implementation challenges.
In partnership with SDIS, Instiglio identified key barriers: delays in service delivery, inconsistent care, misalignment with community needs, and weak monitoring systems. Addressing these issues became central to expanding access while maximizing available resources, improving quality of service, and promoting the holistic development of the city’s vulnerable children.
The Solution
From 2024 to 2025 and in partnership with Instiglio (with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation), implemented an RBF mechanism to improve early childhood education outcomes in Bogotá, for childhood centers serving vulnerable communities.
The project targeted improvements to enrollment, attendance and quality in early childhood development. The RBF model shifted service delivery toward measurable outcomes, strengthened accountability, and better alignment of incentives with children’s well-being. Implementation began with the development of a theory of change and a clear implementation plan that identified priority outcomes such as improved attendance, continuity of care, and quality of classroom interactions. The model was piloted across 12 out of 35 childhood centers.
The implementation phase involved adapting contracts, establishing verification systems, strengthening data infrastructure, A communications and training strategy was also implemented, targeting both SDIS teams and participating partner organizations, to ensure a shared understanding of how the mechanism operated.
This work demonstrates how results-based financing can improve service delivery, enhance institutional learning, and ultimately deliver better early childhood outcomes at scale.
-Adriana González, Deputy Director for Early Childhood at SDIS
The Impact
The pilot implementation across 12 childhood centers surfaced practical lessons for sustaining and scaling the RBF mechanism. These implementation-stage learnings complement the upstream design insights from the earlier ICBF project and point to key adjustments needed in technical systems, incentive calibration, and institutional processes.
Improving data reliability and quality:
Strengthened data collection and verification are critical. Inconsistencies in pilot data undermined accurate incentive calculations, highlighting the need for more robust, automated validation systems before scaling.
Aligning metrics with long-term impact:
The pilot showed that attendance-focused metrics must better reflect what most drives children’s holistic development. Refined indicator definitions and prioritizing meaningful pedagogical outcomes over operational proxies like attendance, will lead to lasting results.
Operational training and awareness-raising for NPOs:
There is an uneven understanding of the RBF model which can be addressed through targeted, ongoing training for teaching and administrative staff, to ensure program implementation can be adapted to the logic of the RBF mechanism.
Alignment with administrative and procurement processes:
Implementation of the RBF mechanism faced coordination challenges related to the SDIS’s standard administrative timelines for signing agreements and verifying payments. A mechanism of this nature required smoother integration with existing budget and oversight cycles, with clearer roles and responsibilities defined for supervisors in the results validation process.