| The increasing pressure to justify public expenditures, improve performance of public sector projects, ensure the effectiveness of foreign aid and increase accountability have led to the performance-based aid offered by bilateral and international aid institutions. Different performance-based instruments and methods have been developed by Multilateral Development Banks towards this end. This research evaluates whether the Inter-American Development Bank's Performance Driven Loan (PDL), used to support the expansion of vaccine coverage through Colombia's existing program, was more cost beneficial than if a traditional investment loan or a Conditional Cash Transfer approach had been used instead. The Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the PDL and an assessment of how the results could vary under the alternatives, show that PDL is more cost beneficial in this case. These results show the potential for using CBA to evaluate health projects and program, as well as to provide a rationale for improving the PDL instrument to make it more attractive to borrowing countries, if the PDL instrument is formally adopted since the six year pilot program has expired. |
