SCALE: A Tool for Transformational Development

This article addresses increasing the scale of agriculture networks to produce large-scale sustainable impact. It summaries the five-step management process called: System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and the Environment (SCALE), which is designed to develop and support stakeholder networks across agricultural and market sectors. The article then describes SCALE implementation through two field demonstration projects, one focused on increasing the value of medicinal and aromatic plants in Morocco and the other on enriching feeds for the stock of small-holder dairies in Kenya, both projects supported by Agriculture Partnerships for Productivity and Prosperity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

SCALE, according to the article's description, takes a system-driven approach, recognising the relationships and connections of the social systems around a development issue. While focusing on a development goal, it is designed to "identif[y] key leverage points to prioritize investments and interventions based on the demands of the commodity/value chain, foster early participation of a diverse group of stakeholders along the commodity/value chain, including national and local government, farmers, industry leaders, NGOs [non-governmental organisations], input markets, media, and private sector representatives;" and support stakeholder groups to find common interests and build coalitions. It then structures the pursuit of common objectives that fit local resources and abilities, while applying social change methodologies and local capacitation and empowerment strategies.

The SCALE process is constituted of these steps:

• Map the context, including governance, economics, civil society, and environmental.
• Catalyze coalitions and partnerships, bringing representation from sectors of the agricultural supply and demand system together to develop shared goals.
• Create collaborative, sustainable solutions, strengthening collaborators to: generate options that address structural, technological, economic, and social, as well as policy, aspects of the project; negotiate and prioritise collaborative solutions; identify specific opportunities for collaboration; and define objectives and indicators of success.
• Act, using social change methodologies.
• Value (Monitoring and Evaluation), encouraging the use of participatory monitoring and evaluation as a means to foster collaborative problem solving.

In its conclusion, the article demonstrates the application of the SCALE process as the working lens for evolving, describing, and analysing outcomes of the two field projects in Morocco and Kenya.

Our apologies, but this article appears to no longer be available.