Structuring and Funding Development Impact Bonds for Health - Nine Lessons from Cameroon and Beyond

The Cameroon Cataract Development Impact Loan was announced in 2017 to provide support for improving access to and quality of cataract surgeries for people through the Magrabi ICO Cameroon Eye Institute (MICEI). This report outlines the journey from concept to implementation for this development impact bond. 

This report addresses a lack of publicly available information on DIBs, which limits the development community’s ability to understand and address issues with the DIB structure. The authors, from the Center for Global Development and Fred Hollows Foundation, harness stakeholder interviews to outline the design of the "Cataract Bond" DIB and use lessons from a range of impact bonds to develop recommendations to inform future projects. Key lessons include the need for clearer expectations on the time and effort required to implement a DIB, requirements for better data on current investment practices, and the importance of leveraging the flexibility of the DIB model.