Designing for scale: using scalability assessments to support government-led scaling

• In Event: Reimagining government, donor, researcher and practitioner partnerships for educational transformation at scale

Proposal

Expanding access to quality education in low- and middle-income countries often faces a recurring challenge: interventions that show strong results in pilot stages rarely achieve sustainable scale through government systems. Too often, promising approaches remain small, fragmented, or dependent on external funding, limiting their potential to strengthen education systems more broadly. In the current global context of shrinking aid budgets, mounting crises, and growing inequalities, this challenge is even more pressing. Education actors must find new ways to ensure that effective interventions can be embedded into national systems and reach all children—helping build not only stronger learning outcomes but also more cohesive and peaceful societies.

To address this gap, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) has developed the Scaling Ingredients Framework. This framework identifies six essential conditions that must be in place for an intervention to achieve sustainable impact at scale. These ingredients operate across three levels—model, implementer, and ecosystem—and include: (i) addressing a relevant problem or need; (ii) evidence of cost-effectiveness; (iii) feasibility of implementation; (iv) implementation capacity; (v) a viable business or funding model; and (vi) a favourable ecosystem. Taken together, these elements capture both the technical and political dimensions of scaling, ensuring that interventions are not only effective in controlled settings but also feasible and credible in real-world education systems.

From this foundation, IPA, as SCALE’s research partner, has developed practical tools to operationalize the framework. These tools are designed not only to guide how pilots are conceived and tested, but also to help them evolve into government-owned strategies that can be scaled sustainably. The Baseline Scalability Assessment provides a structured diagnosis of enablers and gaps to highlight where further investment, adaptation, or political alignment is required. Complementing this, the Scaling and Influencing Plans support pilot teams in setting clear objectives, identifying opportunities for engagement with policymakers and stakeholders, and establishing governance mechanisms to ensure coordinated progress along a pathway to scale.

These tools are now being applied in practice within SCALE Innovative Partnerships, including those in Malawi and Nigeria. Early experience suggests that structured scalability assessments and clear influencing plans can shape pilot design, research agendas, and government engagement in ways that increase the likelihood of system-wide adoption. For example, assessments have already helped identify where capacity strengthening is most needed, while influencing plans have created opportunities for deeper alignment with government priorities and more inclusive decision-making processes.

By embedding scalability considerations from the outset, this approach moves beyond the limitations of traditional pilot models. Instead, it represents a deliberate and evidence-driven strategy for achieving sustainable impact in resource-constrained and politically complex environments. This presentation will introduce the Scaling Ingredients Framework, demonstrate how its tools are being applied in practice, and reflect on emerging lessons from early pilots. In doing so, it will show how structured approaches to scaling can help governments and their partners design education reforms that can achieve meaningful and sustainable impact at scale.

Author

• Karla Petersen, Innovations for Poverty Action