About Us

The Scaling Up Community of Practice (CoP) was founded six years ago by Larry Cooley and Johannes Linn. The purpose of the CoP is to provide a platform for knowledge exchange among experts and practitioners on approaches to scaling up development interventions, for developing partnerships, and for championing the idea that scaling up development impact is critical for achieving global development aspirations, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change aspirations.

Interest in scaling has greatly increased over these six years. The CoP has now more than 700 members from over 200 institutions (including bilateral and multilateral development organizations, operating NGOs, grant making foundations, universities and think tanks) and from many different sectoral and thematic areas of professional expertise.

The CoP has organized four annual two-day in-person workshops in the Washington Metropolitan Area and currently operates nine sectoral and thematic Working Groups (education, health, agriculture, nutrition, social enterprises, youth employment, climate change, fragile states, and monitoring and evaluation) each of which meets virtually three times a year, as well as in-person during past CoP workshops.

The CoP has issued eighteen Newsletters to date, sharing news about scaling up research and practice from the Working Groups, from CoP members, and from the broader development community. Three years ago, an Executive Committee was formed from among the membership. Management Systems International (MSI) has generously provided administrative and logistical support since the establishment of the CoP.

There is strong support among the membership for the continuation and strengthening of the CoP. The CoP receives financial and in-kind support from a number of organizations and individuals, which has allowed it to host its annual workshop, invite and support southern participants, and develop and support a website.

For more information, please contact ScalingCOP@msi-inc.com.