WHO Scaling up framework

Social innovations and social enterprises often face the issue that the organization remains small, thus providing a small impact for climate neutrality. The WHO scaling up framework is a useful tool to guide organizations in developing scaling stratgies.

There is no strict start or end to this framework. It is a guide to start apprehending the scaling up process, which takes time to develop up and has a long-term view. It can be used to reflect on the situation and identify some actions towards defining a scale up strategy.

This is a simple framework that provides guidance on how to think about and approach the drafting of a scaling up strategy of an innovation. Most of the following steps draw on previous analyses and assessments conducted throughout the process of developing and implementing the innovation. Meetings between different parties should be organized to discuss and brainstorm on the different elements, to ensure a holistic view.

1. The first step is to clarify what the innovation is, listing all its components and thinking about what activities were necessary to put it in place. It is important to focus on key components to simplify it. Then, the scalability of the innovation should be assessed (e.g. is it credible, are results observable, is it relevant, does it have an advantage over existing practices, is it easy to understand and transfer). Documents on the innovation’s impacts should be gathered and referred to here: they will help understand the key components and outcomes of the innovation as well as to communicate a shared vision. The scalability assessment should spark some recommended actions that should be summarized, or highlight if the innovation is too complex and might need to be redesigned.

2. The second step looks into the capacity of the institution(s) to implement the strategy with a long-term view: it should be clear who these stakeholders are and if they have the capacity to scale the innovation – looking at the context, the need/motivation, as well as actual implementation capacity (human resources, skills, logistics, facilities, leadership, values, policies…). Capacity-building should have been tested when developing the pilot and again referring to the implementation assessment can be useful to identify potential weaknesses. In the case of multiple partners, it is essential to clarify roles, responsibilities and ownership. Recommended actions emerging from this step should be summarized.

3. Then, it is key to assess the environment to establish realistic expectations about the pace and scope of the scaling up strategy in particular: identifying the relevant environmental sectors (policy context, bureaucratic structure, socioeconomic and cultural contexts, people’s needs…), considering their relations, and thinking about how to maximize opportunities and minimize constraints. The PESTEL and SWOT analyses that should have been conducted at the beginning of the process are useful here. Recommendations of required actions should be summarized.

4. A strong resource team with appropriate skills and time is essential for successful scaling up: the individuals/institutions that facilitated the development of the innovation should be listed, as well as the ones that should be involved moving forward. Then some questions on their leadership, skills, experience, size, resources and stability should be answered to assess if they have the capacity to support the scale up. It should be noted that the resource team, user organization and environment can overlap. Recommended actions should be summarized.

At this point of the framework, there should be reports on the scalability of the innovation, capacity of different stakeholders to implement scaling up, potential for success and how to increase them. This gives the foundation to start formulating the scale up strategy, by deciding on strategic choices.

Next steps therefore involve starting to draft the strategy; deciding on the resources, pathways, process, dissemination and M&E. Particularly, the type of scaling up should be considered: it is important to effectively combine vertical (institutional; bottom up and/or top down interactions between local, intermediate and national levels) and horizontal (expansion, replication…). The timing and sequencing of these two scaling up approaches will be important.

This is an approach that aims to provide a solid foundation for the subsequent definition of a scaling up strategy. It can be evaluated by how capable innovators feel to design an efficient strategy after going through this framework.

The framework is flexible and can be adapted to the context of the innovation. It is more intended as a simple guide on how to approach developing a scale up strategy.