Outcome-based funding, safeguards, and accountability

(a) Outcome-Based funding (1) In general The Foundation shall establish a funding strategy that sets targets based on measurable outcomes to be improved in populations served through its investments, including— (A) identifying and regularly reviewing any such outcomes that advance the purposes described in section 3(b), such as increased crop and animal productivity, increased profit to farmers, or decreased hunger rates; and (B) a portfolio, multi-year, approach to Foundation investments in which the failure of any specific program to achieve target outcomes is acceptable if the overall portfolio of projects meets target outcomes. (2) Financing and evaluation process The Foundation shall establish an efficient and streamlined financing and evaluation process that— (A) prioritizes the achievement of defined outcomes; (B) assesses risk of corruption and employs a strategy to counter corruption; (C) prioritizes funding ventures with partners that are primarily locally based or locally run organizations, entities, and businesses that— (i) achieve such outcomes; and (ii) demonstrate an ability to sustain the financed project; and (D) focuses venture evaluations on assessing such outcomes and minimizing unnecessary reporting on project activities. (b) Accountability (1) Impact evaluations The achievement of venture outcomes shall be determined through impact evaluations that include a comparison group to determine any measured improvements that are attributable to the funded venture. (2) Methodology assessments Foundation staff may assess the methodology used by grantees or investees that are already running impact evaluations to increase efficiency, and such evaluations may be accepted in place of additional evaluations. (3) Dedicated funding Any grantee or investee that lacks impact evaluation capacity may receive dedicated funding to support in-house evaluations or to contract with independent, external evaluators. (4) Third-party evaluations The Foundation may pay for third-party evaluations of any grantee's project to verify the results derived from an in-house evaluation. (c) Safeguards The Foundation shall develop, and incorporate into any agreement for support provided by the Foundation, appropriate safeguards, policies, and guidelines, consistent with internationally recognized best practices. (d) Independent accountability mechanism The Foundation shall establish or contract for a transparent and independent accountability mechanism, consistent with best practices, which shall provide— (1) a compliance review function that assesses whether Foundation-supported ventures adhere to the requirements developed pursuant to subsection (a); (2) a dispute resolution function for resolving and remedying concerns between venture implementers regarding the impacts of specific Foundation-supported ventures with respect to such standards; and (3) an advisory function that reports to the Board regarding ventures, policies, and practices.