Sustainably Scaling up Innovative Agricultural Projects: The case of the E-voucher project of the ATA.
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Scaling up has been defined by different authors in various ways. Scaling up is any form of expansion of an intervention or approach, not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieve greater and more widespread benefits for the population of concern(UNICEF, 2013). But before scaling we have to make sure that the pilot is successful and can be considered as a good practice. The road to sustainably scaling up is often rocky for many organizations and successfully implementing a scaled up intervention is difficult failures are not uncommon. This study raised on the issue of how to sustainably scale up a pilot project. Different studies show that for the achievement of the development goals of a country scaling up good practices is essential, but it has different challenges of implementation. So the study had an objective to study the implementation of a scaling up practice on a selected pilot project. The selected pilot was the E-voucher project of the ATA. Abundant literatures show that success of a pilot is not the end of an intervention but a platform for the opportunities that could be achieved if it is scaled, so a pilot that is not scaled has limited usefulness. . the pilot is ready for scale up through the transfer of the project to a new partner raising the questions who is that partner, what should be the scaling strategy, is the pilot scalable on a large scale, to what extent should the originating organization (ATA) be involved in the scaling of the pilot, and what actions should be taken to sustainably scale up the pilot project The data was collected from a group of participants who had direct involvement on the management of the pilot project, using census and purposive sampling. Questionnaire was prepared both on open ended and close ended type. Unstructured interview was also employed for high level managers. The data was analyzed qualitatively through description and quantitatively with the use of SPSS software. It has been revealed that the E-voucher pilot was a successful project and that it could be considered as a good practice. The study also showed that scaling up should be implemented by technology companies in collaboration with financial institutions (MFIs and CBE), cooperatives and regional governments with ATA playing the linking role among these stakeholders. The study made it possible to identify factors that might challenge the success of the scaled up intervention. some of the challenges may be buy in from internal groups has not been achieved yet, there are no action plans and budgets for the scaling up intervention and also since a specific partner has not been selected yet financial resources needed for the scale up have not been mobilized yet. it is recommended that the ATA and other stakeholders to work on the problems stated above and try to identify the success factors of the pilot and replicate them in the scaling up process.
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Keywords
good practice, pilot project, E-voucher