New CoP Initiatives

1.  Toward a sustainable Scaling Up CoP

Our Scaling Up CoP is now well into its fourth year of existence and has grown into a network and platform of knowledge exchange for some 300 members from about 125 organizations.  Some 18 months ago Larry and Johannes organized an Executive Committee of CoP members to help them manage the CoP and to explore options for establishing a sustainable institutional and financial structure of our initiative. Among our evolving goals is to involve more participants from the Global South and to move gradually from an organization that is carried by purely voluntary efforts of some of its members to one that allows for funding of core institutional functions through sustaining financial contributions.

The Executive Committee has prepared a bi-annual budget, which includes expenses for the annual workshops, travel costs for workshop participants from the Global South, the cost of production of the regular newsletters, costs of developing and maintaining a CoP website and knowledge platform, and basic administrative costs. The budget assumes that leadership of the CoP and its working groups would continue to be provided on a voluntary basis.  After exploring various alternatives and rejecting the option of an obligatory membership fee, we settled on a model, at least for the next few 2-3 years, in which 5 or 6 organizations or individuals agree to be “sustaining members” making a contribution in cash or in kind of $10,000-$30,000 per year; and an additional group of organizations or individuals support the CoP as “contributing members” at a level of $1,000-$3,000 per year in cash.  Sustaining Members would be invited to join the CoP’s Executive Committee. Those organizations and individuals not in a position to provide financial support would continue to be full members of the CoP and encouraged to participate in all its activities.

2. Two new working groups on youth and social enterprise innovation

We have so far obtained commitments from three organizations to become Sustaining Members and received an unsolicited commitment by one member to be a Contributing Member.  We hope to attract at least three more Sustaining Members and as many Contributing Members as possible over the coming weeks and months. Anyone willing to consider becoming a sustaining or contributing member, please contact Larry or Johannes at your earliest convenience at lcooley@ msi-inc.com or jlinn@brookings.edu.

The CoP currently has five working groups meeting in person during the annual workshops, and virtually in between, to exchange knowledge and build partnerships in the following areas:  education, health, agriculture and rural development, fragile states, and monitoring and evaluation.  In the coming few months, two new working groups will be launched:

• A Working Group on Scaling Up Youth Employment led by Elizabeth Vance from the International Youth Foundation and a second co-lead still to be determined.
• A Working Group on Scaling Up Social Enterprise led by IMAGO Global Grassroots, a non-profit organization led by Isabel Guerrero, and by the World Bank’s Social Enterprise Innovation Unit, led by Elaine Tinsley.

Announcements will be circulated in the coming weeks inviting CoP participants to join these two new working groups.

Working Groups of the Scaling Up Community of Practice

The following comments summarize activities of the five working groups that were active during the previous quarter.  These are listed below with the names and e-mail addresses of the coordinators. For more information on the agenda of each working group and on how to join a working group, please contact the respective coordinator(s) or reach out directly to Larry (LCooley@msi-inc.com) or Johannes (jlinn@brookings.edu).

Special Features

Update on the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA): Scaling Innovations

With ‘scaling’ now IDIA’s overarching theme for 2019/2020, the IDIA members (comprising 13 major development finance institutions, with R4D serving as the secretariat; see https://www.idiainnovation.org) have set themselves an exciting new goal to collaboratively accelerate the scaling of innovations in an effort to help bend the curve of the SDGs, most of which are currently forecast to miss their targets by 2030. To do so, IDIA agencies will run three Working Groups in 2019/20, each focusing on a different lever through which to accelerate the progress of innovations through their scaling pathways.

1. Gender & Innovation Working Group (GIWG) (Progressing innovations addressing underserved development areas)

Many development challenges appear to be relatively underserved by innovation. This is likely due to a range of factors, including i) a lack of awareness, knowledge and/or understanding of the development challenge itself; ii) a lack of expertise to apply innovation in addressing the challenge; and/or iii) insufficient incentives to develop and scale innovative responses to the challenge. Mobilizing more resources to support innovation in these underserved areas will be important in developing a stronger pipeline of potential responses. To this end, the IDIA Working Group on Gender & Innovation will identify what innovations currently exist to target Gender-Based Violence, profile gaps and opportunities for further innovation, and help to broker the most promising solutions for additional resourcing and support.

2. Artificial Intelligence & Development Working Group (AIWG) (Exploring the ethical use of emerging technologies as a catalyst for scale)

Technology is a both a source of innovation and a key enabler of the innovation process. For example, the rapid penetration of mobile phones globally has almost instantaneously created a platform for all kinds of mobile-based innovative products and services to reach scale. The new wave of emerging technologies (especially artificial intelligence) now offers a similar paradigm shift in how we design, implement and scale development innovation, but is not without its risks in terms of its potential to exacerbate, rather than reduce, socio-economic inequalities. To ensure an ethical, informed approach, the AI & Development Working Group will be looking at the responsible use of AI in development and surfacing both existing AI-enabled innovations for scaling as well as scalable AI functionalities that might be integrated into other innovations for accelerated / expanded development impact.

3. Pipeline Collaboration Working Group (PCWG) (Promoting the wider uptake and accelerated scaling of deployable innovations)

Thanks to the efforts of IDIA members and other development actors over the last decade, an increasing number of innovations are now successfully transitioning to scale and many have already generated significant impact (e.g. as celebrated in the USAID-initiated “Million Lives Club”). However, in order to reach the next level of sustainable scale (i.e. the tens of millions), more targeted activity is required to promote and de-risk these innovations in order to attract/incentivize additional investment and support from both the ‘mothership’ programming departments of IDIA member agencies, as well as external actors from the public and private sectors. The IDIA Pipeline Collaboration Working Group will focus on this challenge with a view to (a) developing common criteria to facilitate the identification of ‘deployable’ innovations from across IDIA member pipelines; and (b) finding ways to mitigate the institutional procurement barriers / disincentives hindering the take-up and scaling of these deployable innovations by internal and external partners.

Contact: Thomas Feeny (tfeeny@r4d.org)

Global Affairs Canada’s Development Innovation Learning Series on Scaling up Promising Innovations to Accelerate Development Impact

On January 31, 2019, Global Affairs Canada’s Development Innovation Unit hosted an interactive learning session on Scaling Up Promising Innovations to Accelerate Development Impact. The panel featured experts from across disciplines: Robert McLean, Senior Program Specialist, Policy and Evaluation, International Development Research Center (IDRC); Ellen Martin, Co-Founder and CEO SoJo, Co-author of Scaling Pathways Series; Dr. Richard Kohl, President and Lead Consultant, Strategy, Impact and Learning; and, Dr. Helena Shilomboleni, Food Security and Agricultural Development Researcher, University of Waterloo. The audience included over 130 participants from Global Affairs Canada, other government federal departments, IDRC, partner organizations from Canadian civil-society, academics, and the private sector.

Panelists unpacked the following issues: decision-making on whether or not to scale an innovation, intended versus unintended results of scaling up innovations, the need to analyze the capacity of the entire value chain in the scaling decision-making process, strategies and opportunities for scaling social ventures and the importance of flexible financing, and ways to engage local public and private sector stakeholders in the development, testing and scaling of an innovation, and more.

Overall, panelists agreed that development practitioners and stakeholders need to better understand that scaling is not a linear process and the quality and sustainability of an innovation is as important as quantity. This includes improved efforts to gather lessons learned from scaling experiences and applying those to new projects, which is key for achieving wider and deeper impacts.

Canada’s commitment to advancing development innovation is reflected in the Feminist International Assistance Policy and supports greater experimentation and scaling-up of new solutions to development challenges. Canada is also working to ensure that women and girls are involved in the innovation process, both as beneficiaries and as innovators in their own right – from identifying the problem to designing, testing and scaling up innovative solutions.

In June 2018, under Canada’s leadership, G7 Ministers responsible for international development and humanitarian assistance agreed on the Whistler Principles to Accelerate Innovation for Development Impact. One of the principles calls on global stakeholders to identify scalable solutions that demonstrate high potential to achieve and sustain significant impact and cost-effectiveness to reach the poorest and most vulnerable.

Contact: Maude Olivier (maude.olivier@international.gc.ca)

Eleanor Crook Foundation’s 2019 RISE RFA: Building capacity in Scaling and Sustainability through a Face-to-Face Workshop

The Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF) recently announced the 2018 Request for Applications (RFA) for its RISE (Research, Innovate, Scale and Establish) for Nutrition portfolio. The 2018 RISE grants will consist of up to seven grants of $1.35 million each. The RFA is for implementation research projects designed to test scalable innovations and delivery mechanisms with the potential to increase the effectiveness of nutrition interventions in East Africa.

In previous RFAs in 2016 and 2017, ECF recognized a lack of capacity and expertise in scaling and sustainability concepts in proposed research projects. Most of the large NGOs and universities that ECF funds are not often asked to consider scale and sustainability when developing projects. As a result, ECF developed guidance on Sustainability and Scaling which is publicly available on ECF’s website and was therefore available to all applicants submitting a Concept Note to the 2018 RFA process. In addition, ECF built a Face-to-Face Workshop into the current RFA process for successful Semi-Finalists during the Proposal Development phase. The objectives of the Face-to-Face Workshop were:

• To strengthen scalability, sustainability and costing elements of the final proposals submitted to ECF by sharing best practice and developing ideas on these specific proposal elements;
• To foster collaborative relationships between SemiFinalists and ECF and to better communicate ECF’s priorities and expectations.

This three-day Face-to-Face Workshop held in Washington DC in February 2019 was designed to help ECF’s RFA Semi-Finalists critically consider their proposed innovations and further improve their intended final proposal in ways that increase impact and scalability. To this end, the Workshop consisted of a series of sessions across a variety of topics, including Scaling, Sustainability and Costing, led by scaling expert Larry Cooley and costing expert Steve Vosti. The SemiFinalists were given time to think through the theory presented on each of these topics, speak to the experts individually and apply what they learned to their own proposals.

The feedback received to date from the ECF 2018 RFA Semi-Finalists, as well as invited experts, has been extremely positive. Many said this was the first time they were incentivized to consider scaling, and that this Workshop prompted them to go back to the drawing board and comprehensively alter their original concepts. ECF views this Workshop as a much-needed opportunity to focus more critically on scaling and sustainability throughout the broader nutrition sector. ECF is excited to continue playing a role in the wider effort to have longer-lasting, effective nutrition programs on the ground through our grant-making cycles through Workshops like this. We look forward to continuing to focus on scale and sustainability as specific criterion as we make final decisions on this year’s round of nutrition grants.

Contact: Nicki Connell, ECF Technical Director (nicki@ eleanorcrookfoundation.org)

Embracing change: Mainstreaming scaling as a priority area for CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) recently created a taskforce at the institutional level in order to mainstream and integrate scaling principles and guidelines in order to better generate impacts at scale through its innovations and interventions. This taskforce was created as result of CIMMYT’s 2018 Science Week, where scientists from its 15 regional offices gathered at the center’s headquarters in Mexico to discuss key questions, such as what scaling means for a research organization, what is going right/wrong and how to integrate scaling principles when donor expectations may be narrowly focused on quantitative targets.  Johannes Linn’s keynote speech at Science Week, a mini-conference with Larry Cooley in May 2018 and a strong link to the CoP have been instrumental in embracing this new drive for scaling.

CIMMYT has the knowledge and expertise to more effectively achieve impact at scale – however, this knowledge and expertise is currently scattered across the organization. The objective of the taskforce is to come to a joint understanding of impact pathways and sound scaling strategies to influence CIMMYT’s future AR4D portfolio and to be more effective in building partnerships for lasting impact. Moreover, further improvement of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and impact assessments will be included in the discussions on how to design, implement and measure rural transformations for better system changes and how projects and programs can contribute to them. There is a need to better understand the role of monitoring for action. Lennart Woltering, head of the scaling taskforce stated, “There is great momentum at CIMMYT to give more consistency to scaling processes”.

In parallel, the CIMMYT scaling team will continue to refine techniques and guidelines for scalability assessments and scaling strategies from the project design stage to MEL. There is still much to learn on how to measure significant change and how structures, incentives and partners play important roles in these processes. We need to keep providing insights into scaling language and best practices to improve our ongoing efforts and future initiatives.

The Scaling Scan is now available in Spanish here. A new webpage on scaling is available here. And Courtney Brantley published a CIMMYT blog on “Scaling to new heights in agriculture” in January 2019. (https://t.co/8Z4dfUPPJJ)

Contact: María Boa Alvarado, Scaling coordinator, CIMMYT (M.BOA@cgiar.org)

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) – Blogs on learning about policy engagement and pathways to impact

1. Working from Within Governments to Encourage Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

One strategy for moving evidence to policy that engenders particularly meaningful partnerships is to work from within governments, whether through embedding staff within government offices or facilitating the institutionalization of an “evidence unit” within a ministry. Our goal is to help governments accomplish their own goals, using the best available evidence and/or generating their own evidence. In this blog post, we share some of the lessons IPA staff have picked up along the way in different countries. Building relationships takes time, and cultivating trust takes even longer. Embedding staff can jumpstart this process, leading to mutual learning and organic change.

2. How to Keep Good Research from Dying a Bad Death: Strategies for Co-Creating Research with Impact

Some of the most important tools for impact come into play at one critical juncture: when the research funding runs out, the analysis is done, and the final grant report is complete. This is a crucial window of opportunity: either the team loses momentum and lets our partnerships and potential impact wither, or we continue to pursue next steps in policy and research. Researchers are often invested in disseminating the results of their research to the practitioners and policymakers who helped enable it—but disseminating a paper, developing a brief, or even holding an event may not truly empower decision-makers to make changes based on the research. This blog post offers some tips for researchers, funders, or practitioners interested in what can be done at this critical point to turn evidence into policy.

3. Policy Impact Right from the Start: Strategies for Co-Creating Research with Impact

What Nava Ashraf, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Lead Academic for IGC Zambia, and others have coined “co-creation of evidence” is becoming a cornerstone of IPA’s strategy. We’re naming as a priority this collaborative process of researchers and stakeholders generating knowledge together in order to ensure evidence is applicable to real world situations. This entails an authentic commitment from all partners—researchers, implementers, policymakers—to ensure that they mutually build each other’s capacity to drive knowledge creation through field research and policy engagement. This blog post outlines a few ways a few specific ways in which we’ve tried to pursue this genuine co-creation of research around the world.

4. IPA also has another recent impact case study about a program that was scaled in Peru: Improving School Maintenance with Text Message Alerts in Peru

In partnership with researchers, IPA, and J-PAL, Peru’s Ministry of Education is designing and rigorously testing innovative solutions aimed at improving education in the country through an innovative research lab called Minedulab. As part of Minedulab, researchers designed and evaluated an innovative text message alert campaign that “nudged” schools to use allocated funds for maintenance of school facilities. Researchers found that campaign increased adherence to the program and was cost-effective. In response, the agency responsible for the program has scaled it up at a national level. This brief case study explains the intervention and process that led to the campaign reaching scale.

Contact: John Branch (jbranch@poverty-action.org)

Soybean Innovation Laboratory (SIL) Pan African Trials and Mechanization for Small Holder Farmer Road to Scalability

The Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) is a USAID Feed the Future program dedicated to soybean research for economic development and reduction of global poverty and hunger by accelerating growth in the agricultural sector. This multi-pronged program seeks to enhance critical aspects of the soybean value chain from field to table, by working quite literally from the research bench, to the blacksmith shop, to the kitchen counter in their pursuit of bringing high-yielding, nutritious soy to Africa. Two aspects of the SIL program primed for scalability are the Pan African Variety Trials Program (PAVTP) and our Locally-Produced Mechanization Program.

SIL 1.0 focused on research and the discovery of the obstacles and risks that were hindering success in the region. SIL 2.0 is aimed at bringing these findings to scale in collaboration with stakeholders to surmount known obstacles and initiate viable, economically feasible solutions. Looking first at the PAVTP, a critical hindrance to success in human and animal consumption of high-protein soybeans is the availability of high-yielding soybean seed to purchase in African markets. Demand from millers and oil producers is high, but local production is low, and the gap to-date has been resolved with more expensive imports. A key reason local farmers cannot meet demand is the availability of high–yielding soybean varieties adapted to the local climate. The PAVTP’s objective is to fast-track the identification and commercialization of new soybean varieties with higher yield and seed quality compared to the varieties currently available in Africa. This is achieved through the introduction of tens of varieties sourced from a global network of public- and private-sector partners. The program seeks to resolve the market gap with a sustainable network of transparent, formal variety trials that test a wide array of soybean varieties in the field, systematically, against a known control variety.

In the PAVTP, varieties are grown in different countries, locations and seasons and rigorously tested and monitored to determine viability. Growth rates, resistance to disease and yield are some of the plant characteristics recorded as are the size of beans and their ability to remain in the pod until harvest. SIL collaborating scientists monitor the trials and train technicians and future plant breeders on the techniques and technology for managing a world class trial. Data from the trials is uploaded into software that is sent, in real time, to SIL headquarters at the University of Illinois, Champaign for comparative analysis. The PAVTP began with collaborative trials in Kenya at 4 locations and is currently running in 53 locations across 13 countries, with more coming online shortly.

Most importantly, the trials create recommendations to register new varieties as they complete several seasons of testing. To date, seven new varieties have been recommended for registration in two countries. It is also interesting and encouraging to note that 34% of the PAVTP locations to date are owned by private entities. As the PAVTP expands, so does our collaborative network and we expect that the percentage of private entities will grow as move toward greater scalability.

The Locally-Produced Mechanization Program enhances economic opportunity for blacksmiths, welders, and other artisans and improves seed and grain quality for small holder producers while also reducing labor constraints. An aspect of focus for this program is mechanized threshing; it is a valuable tool because it can allow quicker removal of a crop from the field which reduces post-harvest loss in grains and cereals, and reduces losses from shattering, disease, exposure to birds and rodents and adverse weather. On many smallholder farms, mechanical threshers can replace manual threshing by hand beating, a practice that often results in grain spillage, grain breakage, and incomplete separation of the grain from the chaff. Manual threshing is also a very labor and time intensive process that results in high human energy expenditure and a high rate of drudgery in the agricultural system. To help local farmers thresh crops cost effectively, the mechanization program trains local blacksmiths to build threshers with readily sourced materials. The locally built threshers are less expensive than imported small threshers and can be taken from farm, to farm with a motorbike.  In SIL 1.0, designs and proof of concept were evaluated to create a training, templates and manufacturing guide for blacksmith training seminars. The trainings include business sessions so that blacksmiths can sell threshers to operators who will take threshers to local farming communities using a service-provision model. Each thresher costs under $2,000 to build and our operators tell us that it takes one season to pay off a thresher. Mechanical threshing cuts down the time spent harvesting crops significantly and is seen as a value-added service by farmers.

The SIL thresher training program began with one training that produced three threshers in 2016. Local blacksmiths from that class made an additional three threshers in their home shops, creating enhanced adaptations that SIL learned from and put into the designs for future training. SIL trained 22 blacksmiths in 2018 and is collaboratively partnered with ADM’s charitable arm ADM Cares and Compatible Technology International (CTI) to improve the technology and delivery model to farmers. Working collaboratively with our partners, 46 blacksmiths have been trained in both manufacturing and the business practices surrounding a successful thresher business. In 2018, an NGO working with women farmers in Ghana purchased 20 threshers from SIL, which were manufactured by SIL trained blacksmiths. SIL currently collaborates with 16 different local and international entities to serve our blacksmith, operator and farmer stakeholders and we are exploring additional collaborations as of this writing.

Contact: Annette Donnelly (annette5@illinois.edu)

Implementing self-injectable contraception through different delivery channels in Uganda

Self-injection of contraception is a new option that enhances women’s autonomy and control over whether and when to have children, while decreasing the time and costs associated with quarterly trips to a clinic. Research on self-injection of the easy-to-use contraceptive subcutaneous DMPA (DMPA-SC, brand name Sayana® Press) from several countries has shown that women are able to self-inject DMPA-SC safely and effectively following training by a health worker. Moving beyond research, there is a clear need to develop approaches to self-injection delivery that can make this new option scalable, sustainable, and accessible to all women.

PATH’s Self-Injection Best Practices project is generating evidence and guidance that family planning decision-makers can use to introduce and scale up self-injection in the context of routine programs offering a range of methods. Beginning in 2017, the team applied user-centered design (UCD) approaches to shape self-injection program models being implemented and evaluated across delivery channels in Uganda. Almost 300 health workers were trained to offer self-injection services through: public-sector facilities, community-based delivery, safe spaces for adolescent girls and young women, pharmacies, drug shops, and private clinics. More than 7,000 women became self-injection clients over the first year of implementation, and most took two devices home with them for independent use.

The team designed a monitoring system to capture information on self-injection uptake and the characteristics of women accessing self-injection services. We also conducted an evaluation to identify the most successful program models for DMPA-SC self-injection. Evaluation results will be available later in 2019; in the interim, we have several learnings that can be shared from the experience.

Lessons learned to date:

• A UCD process can save implementers’ time and effort in the long run. Early UCD collaborations with decision-makers, health workers, and clients helped clarify feasible approaches to self-injection training and follow-up in the context of the Ugandan health system.
• In busy clinic settings, group training may be more feasible than one-on-one training, though guidelines regarding group size may be needed to ensure quality.
• Women appreciate having a visual job aid they can take home for independent self-injection.
• Incorporating self-injection into HMIS systems is important for quantification, and requires time and provider training. DMPA-SC doses that are injected at the health facility, those given to women to take home for independent self-injection, and training doses all need to be considered when estimating monthly supplies.
• Especially in the absence of a well-funded and systematic evaluation, supportive supervision is necessary to ensure quality of care, including self-injection training approaches and counseling on a range of options.

The team has also worked to build a collaborative environment for self-injection scale-up in Uganda. PATH coordinates a DMPA-SC scale-up task force and a self-injection advocacy group, both led by the Ministry of Health and composed of several implementing partners. We have also identified national and local self-injection champions who serve as spokespeople for program and policy rollout.

PATH is now developing guidance on how to design scalable self-injection programs, and we plan to disseminate this information globally. The PATH-JSI DMPA-SC Access Collaborative will use these results when supporting countries to develop self-injection approaches appropriate to their budgets and family planning programs. For more information, visit www. path.org/dmpa-sc or email FPoptions@path.org.

Contact: Jane Cover, PhD MPH, Research and Evaluation Manager, PATH (jcover@path.org)

Member News

Brookings (Education)

A recent blog from the Millions Learning project at Brookings detailing plans for a Real-time Scaling Lab in Côte d’Ivoire, which will support, learn from, and document work to improve education, training, and early childhood development in cocoa growing communities: Jenny Perlman Robinson and Molly Curtiss. “Cocoa, Côte d’Ivoire, and children’s education: What you should know this Valentine’s Day.”

A new video introducing the Millions Learning Real-time Scaling Labs, an applied research project that aims to generate more evidence and provide practical recommendations to scale quality education interventions: Patrick Hannahan. “Generating new evidence to scale quality education interventions.”

Contact: Jenny Perlman Robinson (jperlman@brookings.edu) and Molly Curtiss (MCurtiss@brookings.edu)

DFAT (Australia) (General)

DFAT’s new Innovation Strategy 2018-2021 includes an explicit focus on scaling: “We define innovation as the application of a new approach that creates a positive impact that is significantly greater than can be realized through current practice.”  Scaling is one of the four key objectives of the innovation strategy. (https://d3qlm9hpgjc8os.cloudfront.net/wp-content/ uploads/2018/07/03095158/DFAT-Innovation-StrategyFINAL.pdf)

Educate! (Education)

Educate! Uganda’s Deputy Country Director Hawah Nabbuye has published her recent research as an Echidna Global Scholar in this report: Gender-sensitive pedagogy: The bridge to girls’ quality education in Uganda. It describes her work on national education policies in Uganda that support the use of gender-sensitive pedagogy and how they translate into practice at the classroom level. Ms. Nabbuye concludes that if we are to achieve the benefits of a gender-sensitive pedagogy, policies must be more than just words on paper. Her research looks at how policies that reference gender-sensitive pedagogy are translating into the classroom.

Contact: Rachael Miller (rachael.miller@experienceeducate.org)

ExpandNet (Reproductive health)

The ExpandNet Secretariat published a new version of the ExpandNet website this last quarter, which is available at www.expandnet.net. In addition, ExpandNet members completed a new draft tool referred to as the Implementation Mapping Tool, intended to support project teams in reflection, learning and taking corrective action as part of adaptive management and documentation during the process of scaling up health and development interventions. The draft is currently being field-tested; however, if readers would like to see a copy and comment on it, please be in touch with Ruth Simmons at rsimmons@umich.edu. In addition, ExpandNet members are collaborating with the BMGF-funded Family Planning Country Action Process Evaluation (FP CAPE) team at the University of North Carolina to evaluate the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative 2 with a special focus on scale-up outcomes. ExpandNet also continued its long-standing collaboration with the USAID-funded Evidence to Action Project at the global and country level.

Contact: Laura Ghiron (ljghiron@umich.edu) and Ruth Simmons (rsimmons@umich.edu)

IFAD (Agriculture)

The IFAD-initiated impact investment fund – the Agri-Business Capital (ABC) Fund – was launched in February 2019 to help rural entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector scale their business opportunities through access to value chain financing and markets. This innovative fund is supported by the European Union, the Africa Caribbean Pacific Group of States (ACP), the Government of Luxembourg and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and is managed by Bamboo Capital Fund with Injaro Investments Limited, as investment advisor.

The objective is to mobilize EUR 200 million from public and private investors over the next ten years. It is estimated that some 700,000 households would benefit from ABC Fund interventions. https://www.ifad.org/en/ abcfund

Recent IFAD publications:

• IFAD’s Research Series Issue 33 – The impact of the adoption of CGIAR’s improved varieties on poverty and welfare outcomes: A systematic review, examines the impact of agricultural research on poverty and welfare by conducting a systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations of improved varieties disseminated by CGIAR between 2007 and 2015. https://www.ifad.org/en/ web/knowledge/publication/asset/40952390
• The Climate Action Report 2018 released in December 2018 walks readers through how IFAD has steadily enhanced and scaled up its work, and indeed its climate change commitments to its stakeholders. It provides several insights of how IFAD is stepping up its efforts and ambitions to contribute to addressing one of the greatest challenges faced by the rural poor. https://www.ifad.org/en/web/ knowledge/publication/asset/40864597
• The Youth Advantage: Engaging young people in green growth describes how in the last ten years, IFAD has actively scaled up its investments in youth-related activities. The majority of these investments targeted the human, social and/or financial capital of rural youth. IFAD is finalizing its action plan on youth based on what is needed, what works and opportunities for IFAD to make a difference for rural youth. The goal is to mainstream youth dimensions into IFAD-supported investments, and one of the themes emerging as key to empowering rural youth is access to land and natural resources. https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/publication/ asset/40851690
• A new e-learning on Scaling Up Results is available for IFAD staff and will soon be available on IFAD’s e-learning page https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/e-learning. The on-line course introduces the basic concepts of scaling up and why it is important for organisations like IFAD working in agriculture and rural development. It helps learners understand how to apply scaling up principles in country programmes to achieve wide reach and long-lasting impact.

Contact: Maria Elena Mangiafico  m.mangiafico@ifad.org

IMAGO Global Grassroots

IMAGO Global Grassroots, a non-profit led by Isabel Guerrero (co-chair of the newly forming working group on scaling up social enterprises, alongside the World Bank’s Elaine Tinsley), works with grassroots organizations, social enterprises, and governments to scale impact. IMAGO will be releasing a newsletter on “Scaling through Government” the first week of April. Government scaling can happen one of two ways: either the government itself looks to fill a recognized gap, or external interventions look to the government as the appropriate path to scale. This newsletter features interviews with Jose Luis Irigoyen, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Transport and ICT Global Practice, on partnering with Peru’s Ministry of Transport to improve rural accessibility for 1.5 million people living in Peru’s Highlands; Santiago Levy, former Undersecretary of the Budget for Mexico, on Progresa, a conditional cash transfer program aimed at breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty; Larry Cooley on education initiatives in Tanzania looking to the government to scale; and Johannes Linn, on how donors and aid agencies fit into the picture. IMAGO explores the concept of scaling through the public sector, while sharing some of the major lessons learned. To receive this newsletter or learn more about IMAGO, visit imagogg.org, and click “Sign me up!”

Contact: Greta Sloan, IMAGO (mis63@cornell.edu)

J-PAL (Sanitation)

In Scaling up sanitation: Evidence from an RCT in Indonesia Lisa Cameron, Susan Olivia, and Manisha Shah investigate the impacts of a widely used sanitation intervention, Community-Led Total Sanitation, which was implemented at scale across rural areas of Indonesia with a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness. The program resulted in modest increases in toilet construction, decreased community tolerance of open defecation and reduced roundworm infestations in children. However, there was no impact on anemia, height or weight. We find important heterogeneity along three dimensions: (1) poverty—poorer households are limited in their ability to improve sanitation; (2) implementer identity—scale up involves local governments taking over implementation from World Bank contractors yet no sanitation and health benefits accrue in villages with local government implementation; and (3) initial levels of social capital—villages with high initial social capital built toilets whereas the community-led approach was counterproductive in low social capital villages with fewer toilets being built. (Link)

Contact: John Floretta (jfloretta@povertyactionlab.org)

NIH (Health)

The Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health is exploring opportunities for using the emerging field of Dissemination and Implementation Science to better understand and overcome barriers to scaling up health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Implementation science can be defined as “the study of methods to promote the adoption and integration of evidence-based practices, interventions and policies into routine health care and public health settings.” To date, the field has focused primarily on early-stage implementation, but there are many ways that the field may be able to contribute to a better understanding of scaling. We are exploring ways to better share lessons learned across different health and disease areas and identifying the types of resources or methodologies that would be useful. Please contact Amit Mistry if you would have any questions or feedback.

Contact: Amit Mistry (amit.mistry@nih.gov)

PPPLab (Agriculture)

PPPLab’s most recent study (https://ppplab.org/2018/11/ explorations-06-shaping-successful-scaling-processes/)

“Shaping successful scaling pocesses” looks at success factors for effective scaling processes. In earlier work, PPPLab has identified ten ‘ingredients’ or building blocks of scaling strategies (see for example Scaling: From simple models to rich strategies and The Scaling Scan). This new study looks at factors that need to be addressed if effective scaling processes are to be achieved. It focuses on how to shape the process of scaling: on process dynamics, leadership, and the ability to act and relate, rather than on ‘what’ to address and achieve. What are the essential capabilities of those that lead the scaling process? How to make use of system dynamics in your scaling effort? How to partner in the most effective way to make scale happen?

This study is based on an extensive analysis of cases and integrates two particular perspectives on how scale happens: a) the innovation/technology-driven view, and b) the system change perspective. On the basis of the available material, PPPLab identified eight critical areas (each with specific success factors) that influence the effectiveness of scaling processes. Although there are no silver bullets, our range of sources suggests that addressing these factors provides essential guidance in realizing scaling ambitions in practice.

Contacts: Floortje Jacobs (fjacobs@snv.org); Lennart Woltering (L.WOLTERING@cgiar.org)

Other Publications, Videos and Events

General

Giuliani, Sandro (March 2019). “System transformation? It’s in the genes.” Alliance.

Sandro Giuliani, Managing Director of the Swiss Jacobs Foundation, discusses how the concept of systems transformation needs to be truly built into the institutional DNA of foundations, not just employed as a buzzword. He argues that philanthropic foundations are uniquely positioned to create and facilitate effective, independent platforms for systems transformation, given their long-term, risk-tolerant funding, their evidence-based orientation and their lack of vested interest in a specific intervention.

https://www.alliancemagazine.org/feature/ system-transformation-its-in-the-genes/

IMFblog (January 2019).  “Mind the Gap in SDG Financing”

Progress in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) hinges on countries’ ability to scale up spending in important areas like health, education and infrastructure. A new IMF staff study (https:// www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/ Issues/2019/01/18/Fiscal-Policy-and-Development-Human-Social-and-Physical-Investments-for-theSDGs-46444) shows that the required scale-up varies widely across countries. For emerging market economies, the average additional annual spending required in 2030 to reach key SDGs stands at 4 percentage points of GDP, compared to 15 percentage points of GDP for the average low-income developing country. https://blogs.imf.org/2019/01/31/mind-the-gap-in-sdg-financing/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Piper, Kelsey (December 2018). “Scaling up good ideas is really, really hard — and we’re starting to figure out why.” Vox.

Programs often show exceptional results in a small trial, but disappoint at scale. This article discusses the question of how the gains from a program be so substantial when it’s first attempted and disappear entirely as soon as it’s expanded to cover more people with Mushfiq Mobarak, who works at Yale’s Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale, which studies the science of scaling and the research methods needed to successfully study program effects. Mobarak thinks the development community isn’t worried enough about whether the results from its programs will scale.

UNDP/UNICEF. Bringing Behavioral Insights to Scale: A Conversation with Cass Sunstein (Conversation)

Behavioral insights yield a huge potential to improve SDG achievement efforts, particularly last-mile challenges. To move forward and embed this approach as a new standard we need to scale experimental, behaviorally-informed methods within organizations. TUNDP and UNICEF hosted a conversation with Prof. Cass Sunstein to discuss the potential and future of behavioral insights. Learn more (https://www.unicef. org/innovation/stories/behavioural-insights-UN) and watch (https://undp.us13.list-manage.com/track/ click?u=8c081158827bfd7a1aa57790d&id=4cbef98534&e=7dd83a0ae5) the conversation.

Walji, Aleem (15 February 2019). “Innovation often fails to scale — maybe we can fix it.” Devex

The head of Aga Khan Foundation USA reflects on why many good innovations get stuck and explains why many are not thinking about scale with the right mindset.

Link

World Bank (2016) “Supporting Transformational Change for Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity: Lessons from World Bank Experience.” Independent Evaluation Group.

The World Bank Independent Evaluation Group in 2016 produced a “Learning Product” on Transformational engagements are a critical pillar of the World Bank Group’s strategy for achieving its twin goals of extreme poverty elimination and shared prosperity. This learning product uses evaluative evidence from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) to understand the mechanisms and conditions for transformational engagements and the implications for the World Bank Group if it seeks to rely on such engagements to more effectively pursue its goals.

Link

Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale

The Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) brings together global experts to research the challenges of scaling programs and advances research on the effects of policy interventions when delivered at scale. While evaluation techniques for pilot-scale programs are well developed, complexities arise when we contemplate scaling up interventions to create policy change. yrise@yale.edu http://yrise.yale.edu

Early Childhood Development

Vanessa Cavallera, Mark Tomlinson, James Radner, Bronwynè Coetzee, Bernadette Daelmans, Rob Hughes, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Karlee L Silver, Tarun Dua (April 2019). “Scaling early child development: what are the barriers nd enablers?” (Archives of Disease in Childhood 104 (Suppl 1: S43-S50))

The Sustainable Development Goals, Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) and Nurturing Care Framework all include targets to ensure children thrive. However, many projects to support early childhood development (ECD) do not ‘scale well’ and leave large numbers of children unreached. This paper is the fifth in a series examining effective scaling of ECD programmes. This qualitative study explored experiences of scaling-up among purposively recruited implementers of ECD projects in low- and middle-income countries. Participants were sampled, by means of snowball sampling, from existing networks notably through Saving Brains®, Grand Challenges Canada®. Findings of a recent literature review on scaling-up frameworks, by the WHO, informed the development of a semistructured interview schedule. All interviews were conducted in English, via Skype, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interviews were analysed using framework analysis. Framework analysis identified six major themes based on a standard programme cycle: planning and strategic choices, project design, human resources, financing and resource mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation, and leadership and partnerships. Key informants also identified an overarching theme regarding what scaling-up means. Stakeholders have not found existing literature and available frameworks helpful in guiding them to successful scale-up. Our research suggests that rather than proposing yet more theoretical guidelines or frameworks, it would be better to support stakeholders in developing organisational leadership capacity and partnership strategies to enable them to effectively apply a practical programme cycle or systematic process in their own contexts. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331848277Scaling_early_child_development_what_are_the_barriers_and_enablers

Health

Cheney, Catherine (12 December 2018). “The Challenges of bringing Malaria innovations to scale.” Devex.

Fighting Malaria with an innovative personalized carbon necklace. A hackathon jointly organized by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and University of California, San Francisco, serves as a reminder of some of the barriers in the way of taking new ideas for malaria eradication from the lab to the field. https://www.devex. com/news/the-challenges-of-bringing-malaria-innovations-to-scale-93987

Cheney, Catherine (22 November 2018). “Scaling up efforts in blood donation innovation.” Devex.

Blood availability, safety, and accessibility are essential components of a strong health system and universal health coverage. In developing countries, blood transfusions are often used to treat pregnancy-related complications as well as severe childhood anemia. But insufficient blood supply, challenges with delivery, and transfusion-transmitted infections often mean national blood systems cannot meet the needs of all patients. A number of efforts are underway to bring innovation to blood donation and delivery, and the most successful efforts focus both on deploying technological solutions, and on working with national health care policy and infrastructure. https://www.devex.com/news/ scaling-up-efforts-in-blood-donation-innovation-93791

Care. “Saving the lives of mothers and children in Bihar” (Care Web site)

The Bihar Technical Support Program is a partnership between CARE, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Government of Bihar, focused on reducing rates of maternal, newborn, and child mortality and malnutrition, and of improving immunization rates and reproductive health services statewide. Since 2011, the Bihar Technical Support Program has helped the Departments of Health and Social Welfare to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in the state. Bihar has seen significant changes in many key public health metrics. Frontline health workers (FLWs) form the backbone of the public health system in India, like they do in many low-income countries. FLWs work hard and walk miles each day to provide in-home counseling, health and hygiene education along with basic maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition services to families in need. Properly trained, supported, and valued, they have the potential to save millions of lives. http://bihar.care.org/?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=44e22202c5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_04_34&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-44e22202c5-143957929

Humanitarian Assistance

Cheney, Catherine (29 November 2018). “Innovation at WFP: A safe space combined with scale.” Devex.

They walk up to an iris scanner at the checkout counter, which confirms their identity on a United Nations database and settles the bill, after it checks that money is available on their account from the World Food Programme, the food assistance branch of the U.N.

Building Blocks operates on the blockchain — a decentralized system of record keeping — and by the end of this year, the program is expected to reach all 500,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan. What began as an idea at the WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich, Germany, has expanded into Jordan. Next, Building Blocks will move into Bangladesh, said Enrica Porcari, director of technology at WFP, who has since brought the creator of the program under her team. This is just one example of how an innovation strategy can bring emerging technology to the humanitarian space.

https://www.devex.com/news/innovation-at-wfp-a-safespace-combined-with-scale-93900

Impact Investing

Saldinger, Alva. (10 January 2019). “India has a growing impact investing industry, but can it scale?” Devex.

Many eyes are on India to see if it can succeed in building a robust domestic impact investing industry and what role it can play in the country’s development efforts. While the country has a much larger market than most, lessons learned there could help efforts elsewhere.

Link

Cheney, Catherine (15 January2019).  “How big grants can pave the way to more investment.”

As more philanthropists explore opportunities in global health and international development, models such as Co-Impact, which announced its first grants Tuesday, offer new ways for donors to join forces.

Link

Social Enterprises

Bhuvaraghan, Jayanth. (31 January 2019). “How to reach base-of-the-pyramid consumers? Inclusive businesses provide an answer.” Devex.

Essilor shares its experiences of creating inclusive business models that not only provide vision care in the hardest to reach communities, but also livelihoods for young, would-be entrepreneurs. When we talk about poor vision impacting 2.5 billion people we’re talking about a lack of trained professionals, a lack of access points — and a need for millions of both of these things. This can only be solved at scale through financially sustainable inclusive business models

Link

Upcoming Events

Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions – Launch of the Scale Up Sourcebook

Purdue University, the African Development Bank, and Catholic Relief Services have invited to an event which will launch the Scale Up Sourcebook co-authored by Larry Cooley, President Emeritus, Management Systems International, and Julie Howard, Senior Adviser (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies. The source book addresses these key questions: Why don’t more improved agricultural technologies go to scale in low-income countries? What have we learned about approaches that work? What can we do to link promising innovations with the right partners, markets, and financial resources?

The event takes place on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington DC 20045, Launch and panel discussion 3-5 PM. Reception 5-6 PM.  Speakers include:

• Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and AgroIndustry, African Development Bank
• Beth Dunford, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Food Security, United States Agency for International Development
• Gilbert Houngbo (invited), President, International Fund for Agricultural Development
• Mima Nedelcovych, CEO, AfricaGlobal Schaffer
• Katie Naeve, Senior Impact and Partnership Manager, Root Capital
• Ian Barker, Head of Agricultural Partnerships, Syngenta Foundation
• Katrin Kuhlmann, President and Founder, New Markets Lab
• Shaun Ferris, Director of Agriculture and Livelihoods, Catholic Relief Services
• Gerald Shively, Faculty Fellow for Global Affairs and Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University
• Suzanne Nielsen, 150th Anniversary Professor and Professor, Department of Food Science, Purdue University

This event is by invitation only.

Contact: jhowardfoodsec@gmail.com

Global Solutions Summit

GLOBAL SOLUTIONS SUMMIT 2019 (GSS 2019) will convene on May 13, 2019 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City.  The theme of this year’s Summit is “Building A More Effective and Efficient Ecosystem for Scaling Technology Deployment for the SDGs.”

The guiding philosophy behind GSS 2019 is as follows: Technology deployment does not happen automatically.  Nor does it take place in a vacuum.  It requires an effective and efficient deployment ecosystem – one that empowers all key players in the deployment process to find each other and join forces.  In some locales, essential pieces of this deployment ecosystem are missing entirely.  In other locales, many of the constituent elements of a vibrant and effective deployment ecosystem already exist, but they are fragmented and disconnected.  In either case, the net effect is the same — deployment efforts to implement the SDGs are less scalable and effective than they would be if potential partners could join forces and operate within a more coherent deployment ecosystem.  GSS 2019 will discuss specific programs that multilateral and bilateral development agencies, national and local governments, social enterprises and the private sector can implement to create a stronger and more vibrant local deployment ecosystem.

More details about the Summit, including a draft of speakers and partners, will be posted on the Summit website.

Contact: Alfred Watkins, Chairman, Global Solutions Summit, www.globalsolutionssummit.com (Alfred.watkins07@gmail.com)

Global Conference on Implementation Science and Scale-up

29 June – 1 July, 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The International Conference of Implementation and Scale-up is co-hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Science of Implementation and Scale-up (CoE-SISU), BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University and UNICEF Bangladesh. The conference aims to showcase the role of Implementation Research (IR) in promoting a culture of evidence-based health and other social development programmes, policies and practices, as well as to create demand for the key implementers and policy makers towards mainstreaming IR in order to bridge the gap between research and policy making. The Conference also aspires to create a demand for global knowledge sharing through an inclusive platform and to document the success stories in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) through the use of IR to influence programme, policy, and practice. Abstracts due on March 1 (organized session) and March 22 (individual session).

Global Implementation Conference

15-17 September, 2019 in Glasgow, Scotland

GIC 2019 creates an opportunity to advance knowledge and expertise in how to lead, guide, and study effective implementation in diverse political, economic, and disciplinary contexts. Across the world, governments, academia, intermediary organisations/purveyors, and service systems are concerned with optimizing the health and wellbeing of local populations. With the global evolution of the field of implementation science and practice, there has been considerable learning and experience on how to maximize the full and effective use of evidence-informed innovations relating to human services across fields (e.g. health, education, social welfare). The GIC is one of the world’s leading implementation conferences. It aims to promote implementation science, practice, and policy and their active application in human services in order to contribute to demonstrable and socially significant benefits to people and society. GIC 2019 aims to engage the expanding global implementation community through dialogue and discussion on cutting edge implementation research and real-world examples of achieving impact, guided by effective implementation, in diverse contexts.  GIC 2019 will be hosted by the Global Implementation Society (GIS) in partnership with the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), University of Strathclyde, September 16 -17 2019 at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow, Scotland. Abstracts due March 29.