For over 40 years, CICan has mobilized the experience and expertise of its member institutions to deliver large scale international cooperation programs in education.
CICan is combining its international experience and its experience as the intermediary in Canada’s first federally funded impact bond to design outcomes-based financial instruments with the aim of improving the lives of women, youth and disadvantaged populations in partner countries around the world.
CICan was the intermediary in the Essential Skills and Social Finance (ESSF), an impact bond Commissioned by the Government of Canada. The ESSF impact bond helped to gain an understanding of the optimal conditions for the design and implementation of impact bonds and to test their market viability and effectiveness in a Canadian context. CICan established a Special Purpose Vehicle, raised and managed investor capital, convened stakeholder, managed and reported on the impact bond’s performance and social impact.
Impact bonds are an innovative way to finance international cooperation projects. DIBs are increasingly being used by governments and donors to explore innovative concepts or to scale proven solutions to the world’s most complex and intractable problems.
CICan’s Innovative Finance Advisory Committee (IFAC) provide strategic direction and advice to the association in its effort to design and implement a Development Impact Bond (DIB).