Implementation & Scaling

Columbia World Projects’ (CWP) research and engagement work on implementation and scaling identifies the conditions under which projects that aim to improve people’s lives succeed, and possibilities for their continuous improvement and replication. 

At present, CWP assembles working groups that grapple with how to scale work and how to adapt implementation activities from one context to another. A first meeting on this topic, held in May 2020, gave rise to two working groups exploring different approaches to these questions.

Details on the working groups, the meetings held so far, and plans for future activities, are below.

Adaptive Scaling

This working group explores models for adaptive scaling by asking how funders, governments and international organizations can encourage experimentation in project design – modulating elements of an intervention – to determine when and which interventions work across different contexts. The group also probes possibilities for the creation of funding mechanisms to encourage adaptive scaling work during the pilot phase of project activities. The launch meeting for this working group was held in February 2021.

Scaling from Below

This working group will study the topic of scaling from below – community-born innovations to solve pressing problems, as opposed to interventions conceived by experts.

The group will explore when and how grassroots innovations can be scaled successfully through government funding, to effect change over a broader area. It will also assess possibilities for strengthening this feedback process to make it more likely that innovations with demonstrated impact might extend their reach and obtain institutional support. Along the way, this group will also raise key questions and analyze data pertaining to when and how systems change takes place.

The launch meeting is planned for April 2021.

Implementation & Scaling Launch Meeting

Columbia World Projects held a first meeting on implementation and scaling in May 2020.