Prepare To Scale Up

BEFORE YOU SCALE UP…

STEP 3: Assess the potential to scale up.

Not all programs have the potential to scale up, or at least not in their existing form. It's important, then, to assess the possibilities for scaling up and the potential barriers. Here are some questions to consider as part of your assessment.

• Is there a real and perceived need for a large scale program?

Assessing the potential to expand a community mobilization approach is an ongoing process that, as mentioned above, needs to begin at the start of the program and should continue throughout the effort. The effort should address a real need (as demonstrated by health indicators), whether the need is openly acknowledged and expressed or is latent and awaiting validation and expression.

To achieve national scale requires human, financial, institutional, and other resources. When a need is strongly perceived by many people, it is easier to access these resources. Generating resources to address latent needs often requires more time to be able to raise awareness at all levels about the need and to build consensus regarding resource allocation.

• Who are the potential future implementers of the approach and how capable are they of reaching scale while maintaining quality?

Some organizations view scaling-up as an opportunity to greatly expand their own organization's coverage, impact and resource base. From this perspective, assessing the potential to scale up involves assessing their capacity to grow to national scale. Then, as resources and opportunities permit, they increase their size and adapt their management systems to meet the requirements of their growth.

Others may scale up through partnership with other organizations. The original implementing team may change its role as a program expands from an implementer to providing training and technical assistance to its partners.

Another approach is to establish "living universities" or "centers of learning" in the communities that have participated in the program. These communities share their experience with other communities and serve as demonstration sites where experiential training can occur. For this approach to be sustainable, it still requires attention to institutional development and systems at the community level.

Some methodologies and approaches are picked up spontaneously by other organizations regardless of any deliberate plan by the originators of the approach. The caution here is to make sure that the approach really is effective and to maintain the quality of the approach so that the desired results will be achieved. While this can sometimes be done with little or no technical assistance or training, this is not usually the case.

The decision to adopt one or another of the above strategies is usually based on an organization's philosophy and goals, its interest, capability and capacity, as well as that of its potential partners and the practical realities of the setting in which it works. For example, if your organization's goal is to build the capacity of local organizations and "work yourself out of a job", then the first option of growing your own organizational presence as program implementers on a national scale is inconsistent with your organizational philosophy.

• Is there political will on the part of policy makers and donors to support the effort on a large scale?

Do donors and government agencies consider what is being addressed through the community mobilization approach a high priority issue? Are there other strategies that have been tested that are as effective as this approach in this setting? At what cost? What concerns donors and policy makers the most about the issue? How does the approach that you are proposing address these concerns? Are there other benefits that this approach delivers that others do not?

If the need is great in many communities but the issue is not yet on the policy makers' and donors' agendas, you will need to dedicate more time to educating this audience about the realities on the ground and how communities are addressing their needs. Interested communities can and should participate in this process.

• Are resources available to support the large scale effort? What would be potential funding mechanisms?



In some cases, resources are available and all that's needed is a strategy to determine how to best program these resources. Having an effective, well-defined approach and the tools to be able to expand the approach can be very attractive to donors looking for ways to achieve greater impact.

However, more often than not, you will need to consider multiple funding sources in order to reach a large scale program. This requires patience, participation in many meetings, writing many proposals and trying to meet the various needs of many actors while ensuring that you maintain the core values and key components of the approach. Count on at least a year to bring everything together and assume that some funding sources will come on line earlier than others. You need to be flexible and have contingency plans.

• Would existing national and regional policies support or inhibit a large scale effort? Which policies would need to be changed, if any? What is the likelihood that these could be changed?

Pilot or demonstration programs may encounter policy and other obstacles to program implementation. Implementers and other stakeholders may work out ways to diminish or remove them through their on-the-ground relationships. When a program expands appreciably, these policies take on a different significance that may require advocacy to change them so that the program can be implemented in many sites.