Working to broaden what gets included in Results Based Financing is showing potential for changing how domestic financing can be incentivised towards inclusive outcomes. GPE country partners have been using an equity-based formula for the allocation of school grants and subsidies which, whilst not new, are a mechanism that can be used to get resources to schools to support learners with disabilities. This has ensured more resources are available at the school level for children with disabilities, and teachers with specific skills are allocated to areas with higher numbers of students with disabilities.
In Tanzania, they have been linking disbursements to social inclusion assessment indicators. Whilst designed with the primary intention of increasing the participation of girls, it has had additional benefits and may prove to be workable as an intervention with more deliberate targeting of children with disabilities. The context is positive because Tanzania has a harmonised system for tracking data on children with disabilities which means local districts can be incentivised to do more on inclusion.
The impact of such initiatives can be a powerful way to change a policy on inclusion into something tangible by building equity into the accountability structures that govern how funding is released. This has incentivised improvements to the skills of teachers, as well as the up-skilling of municipal and local authorities to conduct identification processes. Whilst in this case the incentives for districts are still indirect for children with disabilities, it could be strengthened by including explicit triggers for the enrolment or retention of children with disabilities in their own right. In many respects, stigma against children with disabilities is still a significant issue at local level from communities, teaching staff and local decision-makers. So, targeted financing may be needed to provide localised incentives for inclusion.
The key messages here are that, in Results Based Financing mechanisms, it is important to get explicit mention of Inclusive Education in outcome documents to encourage investment in actions that promote inclusion (especially collecting and tracking data). Local government is also an important target for stimulating political will because this is where funding decisions are put into practice. Local level officials need skills and expertise to be able to support schools to implement Inclusive Education.