AG R I C U LT U R E & RURAL DEVELOPMENT JOINTNOTES ISSUE 59 FEBRUARY 2012 Lessons from Scaling Up 68001 Lessons and Recommendations for Agricultural Practitioners The new report “Lessons from Practice: Assessing Scalability� aims to provide specific tools and guidance to World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs) and other agricultural development specialists which can assist them in identifying the potential for scaling up small, innovative projects throughout the entire project cycle – from inception through completion. This report, developed in collaboration with the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, draws on lessons from the experience of the Development Marketplace (DM) in funding small innovation projects and offers strategic advice to agricultural practitioners on assessing the scalability of such projects. Innovation lies at the heart of agricultural develop- change and (2) are perceived as having local legitima- ment and successful innovation demonstrates viable cy, ownership and the capacity to produce benefits. approaches that have the potential to be effectively The use of simple tools to assess scalability can scaled up – both within countries and across bor- allow implementing organizations and funders to ders. However, innovations are also risky, having focus on a small number of key actions that will pull the potential to consuming scarce development along the other implementation steps required for resources without providing adequate evidence for scaling up. success. While initial tests of innovations are usually small, they nonetheless need to provide guidance Behavior change is a requirement of success- to implementers and funders on whether or not to ful innovation. Enabling behavior change is often go to scale and, if so, how to do it – leading to the overlooked in considering scalability or planning paradox of needing proof of innovation impact and the implementation of a scaling up effort. Assess- scalability before deciding to scale up, but requiring ing both the kinds of behavior changes required by decisions on scale up before adequate information implementers and participants, and the leadership is available. The pathways toward effective and ef- capacity of the implementing agency is a funda- ficient expansion, adaptation and replication are nei- mental part of assessing scalability. It must also be ther obvious nor easily followed and there persists remembered that innovations require changes in the a need for new and effective approaches which can behavior of project staff as well as beneficiaries and better address impediments to effective scaling up. assessments incorporate this component. Innova- This report – which includes a literature review and tions that rely on government services in testing three individual case studies – provides findings and implementation or scaling up initiatives create new recommendations as part of the global donor com- munity’s ongoing response to this need for improved scaling up tools and guidelines. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Prioritize simplicity in design and implementa- tion as much as is possible in the complex realities of the development context. Keeping innovative projects simple means limiting the necessary num- ber of implementing agencies, actions and decision- points required for an action to take place. Scaling up is essentially the implementation of change, which can be hindered by the employment of com- plex assessment frameworks. The report concludes A farmer in India stands next to a cold storage facility made available that innovations with the best possibility for scaling to him through a 2008 Development Marketplace initiative. up (1) have clear and testable designs or theories of Source: ARD. work for involved participants, who may need to develop which predicts the sustainability of MCSUs as viable busi- new skills or work with new types of clients. Focusing on nesses operated by youth entrepreneurs. investing in incentives, motivation initiatives and trainings can help address the challenge of changing staff behavior Nigeria. The “Adding Value to Waste in the Cassava and sufficient time should be granted for these behavioral Processing-Goat Keeping Systems in Nigeria� project is changes to occur. Lastly, the larger the change in practice, comprised of five innovations: a simple technology (a the greater the time and resources required for imple- drying platform for the cassava peels to be used instead menting the innovation or scaling up effort. of burning the waste), a new product (clean dried cas- sava peels that can be sold as goat feed), an educational Scaling up is an iterative process which requires component (a diet prescribed to goat farmers, designed by constant stakeholder involvement, continuous M&E and animal scientists that utilizes cassava peels and maxi- continual reiteration of scaling up commitments and fea- mizes the growth rate and health of the goats), access sibility throughout a project’s lifespan. To help better guide to credit (facilitating micro-credit loans to build the drying the iterations of this process, the report recommends that platforms), and a new market mechanism (linking cassava initial design should include both an assessment of its scal- processors and goat keepers). This project benefited from ability and a strategy for bridging the gap between testing a simple theory of change and an iterative assessment of and scaling up, and the intention to scale should be part scaling up, which guided the project in expanding to an of the design of the original project. The decision to move additional 21 locations, as expected increases in annual toward scaling up should be based on evidence of results income were revised up from US$384 to US$635 – lead- delivery and assessment of potential for replication and ing to increased demand from extension agents and the expansion. If assessment of scalability is done iteratively, communities they served. two advantages emerge: (1) the information from the Mongolia. The “Value Chain Development of Textile ongoing assessments can be used to continually influence Products� project addresses the decline in the quality of implementation of the project – increasing the likelihood raw Mongolian cashmere, yak wool, and sheep wool by of recognizing successful components and potential choke creating a decentralized grading laboratory and carrying out points; and (2) information can be used for decision-making extensive training programs on grading, sorting, and quality- on whether or not to proceed toward scaling up throughout based breeding in one rural province. This project facilitates implementation, as opposed to project completion. stronger linkages within the entire cashmere and wool value chain – from herders to manufacturers – and strives CASE STUDIES to increase the competitiveness of firms that produce high Central to the lessons and recommendations in the new quality final goods and improve the design and international report was the creation of three case studies, carried out marketing for such products. A positive behavior change in India, Mongolia and Nigeria. Factors which contributed was noted during this project which continues to nurture to the selection of these three projects include geographic promising working relations among all the various stake- and economic diversity, differences in the quality and holders, who perceive the legitimacy of this project and the strength of governance, variety in the approaches to de- potential benefits to themselves and their communities. livering the innovation to beneficiaries and in the types of adopting and partnership organizations. These three case Methodology studies will be featured in accompanying ARD Notes. This study is based on work done by a team from the Heller India. The “Waste to Wealth by Incubating Mini Cold Stor- School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis age Technology Ventures in India� project seeks to reduce University. Background work includes: substantial post-harvest waste of vegetables in India by n a literature review; giving small farmers access to cold storage units suited to the needs of small producers. Two years of implementa- n a desk analysis of available documentation on the 22 tion demonstrates a small farmer demand for using the Development Marketplace projects selected in 2008; Mini Cold Storage Units (MCSUs), reduction in waste n field-based case studies of three projects which showed and increased income for small farmers. Rural and semi- promise of scalability; and urban youth have been trained in MCSU maintenance and n responses to surveys sent to project managers of the management. This project has benefitted from a change 22 winning projects, 78 finalist projects that were not of behavior – facilitated in part through the youth training funded, and TTLs of the 22 winning projects. program – and stakeholder buy-in, demonstrated by the development of a financial model by the implementing This ARD Note was prepared by John Mackedon, Gunnar Larson, and agency, Tiruchirappalli Regional Engineering College – Kaisa Antikainen under the guidance of Fionna Douglas, with special thanks Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP), to Susan Holcombe and her team at Brandeis University. 1818 H Street. NW Washington, DC 20433 www.worldbank.org/ard