Scaling Up Development Programmes

Many development organizations, national and local governments and civil society organizations are faced with the issue of scaling up development interventions — the main questions raised time and again are: a) what should be scaled up, and how it can be scaled up; b) is there a strong reason for a particular initiative to be scaled up; and c) what should be the value-added of the scaling up efforts, and how can practitioners ensure that technological and other innovations are being integrated for improved development effectiveness? Answers to these questions depend on a host of complex realities—the relative strengths and weaknesses in national and local systems, political and economic situations, including vulnerability of country systems to shocks, commitments from development partners, power dynamics between various groups and stakeholders in a given country, regional and global environments. For the United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) and UNDP offices, another factor to consider is how to maximize our respective comparative advantages. This guidance note summarizes the main conceptual thinking available from development institutions and academia, and presents a simplified conceptual framework and roadmap for scaling up processes. It also provides UNDP programme staff and UNCTs with practical actions and checklists to consider when designing and implementing programmes that support national scaling up initiatives, and proposes actions that can be undertaken at the regional and global levels. Although intended for internal audiences, the scaling up concept and recommendations can also be used by the public and private sector, civil society and social entrepreneurs. This note benefited from a wide consultative process held in 2011, including practical recommendations and proposals from colleagues at country offices and regional/global centres. Their insights have been instrumental in the distillation of main recommendations presented in this note, and the individuals who provided substantive contributions are gratefully noted in the Acknowledgements section.