Scaling Week 2024: Where Voices of Change Fuel the Future of Scaling

Hanna Ewell (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT), Pothuri Dharmendra (HarvestPlus Solutions), Marielle Karssenberg (Netherlands Food Partnership), Eliud Birachi (Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT), and Jane Kamau (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) (photo credit: CGIAR). 

“If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”

On a warm and sunny Tuesday morning last December, some 200 thought leaders, practitioners, and funders of the science and practice of scaling agricultural innovations formed a large circle on a grassy lawn on the Nairobi campus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). At the request of the event facilitator, the individuals stood themselves in order of how near or far they had travelled to attend the meeting: those living nearest to the ILRI campus (e.g., in an adjacent suburb) placed themselves on the facilitator’s left, those who had traveled furthest (e.g. from Mexico and Peru) stood on her right, with everyone else finding their appropriate place in that ordering.  

That exercise brought home the great diversity, disciplinary, cognitive, and geographical of this group, with an unspoken message—don’t miss this opportunity to use such diverse experience and talent!

These 200 people were in East Africa to participate in a third annual ‘Scaling Week’ organized by the CGIAR Ukama Ustawi Regional Integrated Program on Diversification in East and Southern Africa, the CGIAR Portfolio Performance Unit, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and ILRI. 

The meeting facilitators then provided guidance on navigating the many sessions that would be held over the next three days: ‘This is not your average conference format. The agenda has been truly co-created. It’s going to look a bit like a music festival, with different tents for different sessions—a chance to celebrate, to connect and have small group discussions that really help you to dive into the topics you’re interested in.’ 

The light-touch interventions and participatory ethos on display were next-level. If making change at scale was the common moonshot ambition that brought these people together, the event was designed to maximize the impacts of bringing these people together for value-adding transactions of a very humankind. The ambition was for people to leave the week energized with new ideas, new connections, and new goals.  

Participants were invited to take part in the opening session of CGIAR’s Scaling Week. From left to right: Katharina Schiller (CIMMYT), Nora Hanke-Louw (International Water Management Institute), Paswel Marenya (CIMMYT), and Carlo Fadda (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) (photo credit: CGIAR). 

The opening session on the first day set the event’s friendly tone and interactive nature. Rather than deliver a series of talking points, two of the main event organizers, Iddo Dror and Inga Jacobs-Mata, stood on the stage and improvised their welcome in conversation made up as they went along (with ‘protocols probably not observed’, as Dror wryly observed). 

We’ve structured this week to minimize sessions with a couple of people talking and a lot of people listening and to maximize your opportunities to connect with the people around you, because the things you take away from this week are the great connections that you make and what you’ll do together in the coming year. I’d like you to ask yourselves this week: Who will I discover, and what magic will we do together that moves the scaling agenda forward this year? 

Last year’s Scaling Week (which incorporated violin playing and art among other novel components) was the first time we purposively worked to engage all your senses. I invite you this year to bring your full self, including your silly self. Maybe you’ll connect with colleagues in ways that enable you to do some wonderful stuff. I know it has done in my case.

—Iddo Dror 

What then ensued was truly inclusive, with Dror and Mata-Jacobs regularly inviting one group or attendee after another to stand, to introduce themselves, to speak on one topic or another, to be acknowledged. The bite-sized origin and other stories that followed were as inspiring as they were improvised on the spot. 

Jacobs-Mata began by noting how dramatically the agricultural scaling community had grown in just a few years. ‘The first Scaling Week consisted of a small group of scaling scientists coming together to set up what we in Ukama Ustawi called a ‘community of spirit’—more than a community of practice. We’ve grown now, incorporating other CGIAR Initiatives and Centres as we move into CGIAR’s new Scaling for Impact Program. This gives us cross-regional perspectives and new opportunities to learn from. 

While improvised on the spot, the welcome session by Dror and Jacobs-Mata managed to introduce many topics that became highlights of the week. These included the following remarks. 

The scaling community has grown rapidly since the first Scaling Week back in 2022, particularly by bringing in non-CGIAR partners such as the World Bank. As the Bank’s Loraine Ronchi noted, “Some of us generate knowledge, some of us share that knowledge, some of us implement that knowledge, and that whole process takes a range of partners, which I am thrilled to see here today.”

A parallel session shares insights and lessons from the frontiers of scaling (photo credit: CGIAR). 

The “community of spirit” (more than a community of practice) formed by the scientists, donors, and farmers of Ukama Ustawi and the transition of Ukama Ustawi into a global CGIAR Scaling for Impact Program starting in 2025. 

An accounting of the “first edition” of the Scaling Week, as dreamed up by Marc Schut, CGIAR and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and Tom Pircher, of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). “I remember it vividly,” said Schut. “It was three years ago, during the summer holiday. I was sitting on a chair in my parents-in-law’s garden in Belgium. I had a phone conversation with Tom. A colleague introduced us because Tom was leading a GIZ scaling task force. Tom and I just wanted to get to know one another, have fun, and see what would happen. And so we organized the first Scaling Week three years ago—25 people in a small meeting room. And now here we are today, with 200 people in a huge tent. I’m really thrilled.”

Participants exchange on the beautiful grounds of ILRI campus in Nairobi, in a festival-like ambiance. Visible from left to right: Marie Michele Codja (Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program), Ravinder Grover (HarvestPlus Solutions), Hezekiah Agwara (CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service), Kristen Becker (Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture), Samuel Mugambi (Wageningen University), Nekesah T. Wafullah (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) (photo credit: CGIAR). 

The participants who had attended the 2023 Scaling Week were asked to name some of the highlights of the previous year’s event. Nora Hanke-Louw, of the CGIAR International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Ukama Ustawi, mentioned the formation of a CGIAR Scaling Community on LinkedIn, led by Agnes Schneidt, which now has over 600 members. ‘It was the logical continuation of our conversations,’ said Hanke-Louw. 

Evan Girvetz of CIAT and Ukama Ustawi described ‘just the excitement, the enthusiasm, the hunger for more of this kind of work in CGIAR that’s been building over the last couple of years, and not just for East and Southern Africa but globally.’

Others mentioned the previous year’s emphases on ’responsible scaling’, the importance of scaling with the private sector and the launch of an Ukama Ustawi Scaling Fund, which is managed by ILRI. 

Jacobs-Mata described the previous year’s launch of the Scaling Fund as ‘a huge step change for both Ukama Ustawi and CGIAR as a whole. Let me acknowledge Ambassador Michael Upton, ambassador of New Zealand in Ethiopia and other East African countries, who has supported the Scaling Fund and who, through New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), injected USD16 million into our program, which unlocked many barriers and brought the Scaling Fund into existence.’ 

Esther Kihoro, of ILRI, added: ‘New Zealand’s MFAT did more than give USD16 million to enable the Scaling Fund. It also allowed us, for example, to conduct a March workshop of 20 people deliberating on the ‘science of scaling’. This group went on to form a science of scaling group that has already grown to include 64 members and to host webinars every four months. It’s exciting to see the growth of both the science and the practice of scaling.’ 

Representatives of the three winners of the 2024 Scaling Fund were then asked to briefly describe how the Fund had supported the scaling of their innovations. 

Marcel Gatto, of CGIAR’s International Potato Center (CIP), said the Fund enabled the roll out of its innovation, called VarScout, which is a digital ecosystem to collect, store and visualize crop varietal data. “Within just three or four months, we have been able to collect more than 20,000 observations through the extension program, which is really a great model for scaling and moving forward.”

Katheryn Gregerson (Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture) (left) and Susanne Bodach (International Water Management Institute) exchanging insights about their professional scaling journeys (photo credit: CGIAR). 

Bester Mudereri, a CIP scientist working in Rwanda, said the Fund enabled the launch the previous week of its innovation—a fertilizer recommendation tool plugged into a digital system built by the government—with Rwanda’s minister of agriculture and animal resources and the director general of the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. ‘I’m happy to say that today I have come to Scaling Week with my Rwandan Government partners.’ 

Murat Sartas, of the CGIAR International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), reported that the Fund enabled its innovation—called ShambaShield, which is exploring uniting finance, investments, and climate information services—to create partnerships with the largest banks of Kenya. 

Finally, the CGIAR Portfolio Performance Unit was acknowledged for co-hosting Scaling Week for the past three years. This Unit, said Jules Colomer, its director, has managed to bake in core precepts of scaling and innovation management in CGIAR’s DNA. ILRI itself, and its director general, Appolinaire Djikeng, were acknowledged not only for hosting Scaling Week each year but also for serving as a ‘living lab’ for scaling innovations and for its recent offer to host a physical Scaling Hub on its Nairobi campus—for use by all of CGIAR and its partners. 

Members of CGIAR’s new Scaling for Impact Program, which started operations in January 2025, celebrate the end of Scaling Week 2024. From left: Nora Hanke-Louw (International Water Management Institute), Marcel Gatto (International Potato Center), Iddo Dror (International Livestock Research Institute), Sali Atanga Ndindeng (AfricaRice), Evan Girvetz (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT), Tim Krupnik (CIMMYT), Md Masud Rana (CIMMYT), Deissy Martinez Baron (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT) (photo credit: CGIAR). 

Dror closed the opening session with these words. “It’s only a pleasure to work with you and others to bring the Scaling Hub, which will belong to all of CGIAR and its partners, into existence. And shout out to Tim Krupnik and Inga Jacobs-Mata and all the members of the writing team for CGIAR’s new Scaling for Impact Program. These people have dared to dream. And when you dream it—and will it and take action like they have done—it’s no longer a dream. It’s reality.”

Some participants gather for a group photograph on day 3 (photo credit: CGIAR). 

Links: 

• Scaling Week 2024 impressions (video) 

• Connect with others on CGIAR’s LinkedIn Scaling Community 

• Developing scaling strategy guidelines for CGIAR innovations: An update from Scaling Week on what CGIAR is learning along the way (CGIAR article)