Project
scale-up with FID: deploying innovative, high-impact solutions

FID financing for project scale-up requires proof of impact backed by solid data, with a credible plan and roadmap for wider roll-out, for which FID can provide support. Even when the impact of an innovative project has been proven with a small population, its wider roll-out is dependent on other issues that are often not addressed within the innovation ecosystem, relating to its impact, cost-effectiveness, and the operational aspects of large-scale implementation. Substantiated data must be used to answer these questions to ensure effective and sustained deployment.

Scale-up financing comes in various forms, and covers a wide range of operations, which are grouped into three categories: transition to scale-up, expansion and institutionalization.

Once an initial impact evaluation has demonstrated the solution's effectiveness on a small scale, FID supports the transition to wider roll-out. One of the main challenges at this stage is ensuring that the mechanisms responsible for the project's impact on a limited population are accurately replicated during its expansion, which often involves new partners. The strategy therefore consists mainly, for the teams, in carrying out rigorous monitoring of the quality of the implementation of the intervention deployed at scale, assessing whether the effects observed on a smaller scale are maintained and whether they are sustainable in the medium and long term.

For example, the project carried out in the Virunga National Park aims to provide electric cookers as an alternative to cooking with charcoal, thereby reducing the risk of diseases caused by household air pollution, and limiting deforestation in the Virunga National Park, where charcoal is produced illegally.

Based on the promising results of the impact study, the social entreprise Virunga Energies is now scaling up this initiative, with support from the European Union and FID. This financing will be used to distribute heavily subsidized electric cookers to more than 52,000 households (representing nearly 400,000 people) by October 2029, as well as to conduct an assessment on the long-term impact of take-up, both on households and the charcoal market in general.

The company will also use this financing to identify strategies that increase electric cooker use beyond the levels achieved in the randomized controlled trial, by piloting new approaches: introducing a two-burner induction cooktop to offer the possibility of cooking two dishes at the same time on the same cooker, and implementing a "cook to earn" program that rewards households using electric cookers (with additional income generated from carbon credits).

When replicating and expanding proven innovations in new contexts, FID serves as a key partner in trialling the changes required to ensure. The question for the teams is then to determine under what conditions and through which modalities the intervention could be extended to new geographies and/or new populations. What adaptations would be necessary, and what new components would need to be introduced ?

In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, the TaRL Africa primary education program, which targets students by learning level, is a replication of a program developed by the Indian NGO Pratham that demonstrated its impact in India (see JPAL resources). It was subsequently rolled out in about ten other countries, where its impact was also demonstrated. Côte d’Ivoire is the first West African country to test the approach on its territory, initially in the south of the country, and then, with FID support, as a first step towards scaling up in the north. FID funding helped support the adaptation of the program to the specificities of northern Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in terms of language and the training of regional stakeholders.

Since then, the Ivorian Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA) has begun implementing its National Program for the Improvement of Early School Learning (PNAPAS), based on two key pillars: structured teaching, and the remedial approach inspired by TaRL.

For mature innovations whose proof of impact has already been demonstrated in multiple ways, FID supports work to embed these solutions within public institutions to ensure their autonomous and sustainable implementation over the long term. The focus is then primarily on identifying, documenting, and supporting activities that help consolidate the integration of the innovation into existing public policy systems and mechanisms.

The project, Supporting Teacher Achievement in Rwandan Schools (STARS), aiming to boost teacher motivation and improve student outcomes in Rwanda, is a perfect example of an innovative program, developed within a public entity, that is currently being institutionalized. This final phase involves awareness campaigns and cascade training for inspectors and lead teachers in the new districts, support from dedicated staff to coordinate the reform, and increased investment in the Ministry of Education's data infrastructure to develop a standardized system for assessing student performance.