To scale, or not to scale – that is not the only question : Rethinking the idea and practice of scaling innovations for development and progress

The term scaling (up) has become increasingly popular over the past three decades in the context of development initiatives and related investment proposals. Such scaling (up) generally relates to innovations, which include (new) technologies, practices (and habits), policies (and wider institutions), and projects. The approach of scaling innovations is often presented as the instrument par excellence for addressing grand challenges in/for society, to the extent that it may be regarded as a core development paradigm or even ideology. This thesis presents the case for a need to approach ideas and practices related to scaling more critically than is commonly done. This includes a need to consider related complexities and potentially negative implications from a more holistic perspective. The thesis discusses concerns as well as opportunities for developing a practice of responsible scaling of innovations.</p

Income intervention quick scan: outgrower schemes and contract farming : Farmer Income Lab Intervention Quick Scan

This quick scan, commissioned by the Farmer Income Lab, is part of a wider research effort looking at, “What are the most effective actions that lead buyers can take to enable smallholder farmers in global supply chains to meaningfully increase their incomes?”. The quick scan provides an overview of the publicly available evidence on the impact of outgrower schemes and contract farming have had on raising farmer income. Such subsidies have had little positive effect on farmer income, are not notably beneficial for women nor is this effect long-term. They have been applied at large scale. This quick scan is part of a series of 16, contributing to a synthesis report “What Works to Raise Farmer’s Income: a Landscape Review”

Making Evaluations Matter: A Practical Guide for Evaluators

This guide is primarily for evaluators working in the international development sector. However, if you are a commissioner of an evaluation, an evaluation manager or a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) officer, you too will find it useful.Too often evaluations are shelved, with very little being done to bring about change within organisations that requested the evaluation in the first place. This guide will explain how you can make your evaluations more useful. It will help you to better understand some conceptual issues and appreciate how evaluations can contribute to changing mindsets and empowering stakeholders. On a practical level, the guide presents core guiding principles and pointers on how to design and facilitate evaluations that matter. Furthermore, it shows you how you can get your primary intended users and other key stakeholders to contribute effectively to the evaluation process

Turning waste to wealth: harnessing the potential of Cassava peels for nutritious animal feed

In Nigeria, processing cassava for food and industry yields around 15 million tons of wet peels annually. These peels are usually dumped near processing centres to rot or dry enough to be burned. Rotting heaps release methane into the air and a stinking effluent that pollutes nearby streams and underground water, while burning produces clouds of acrid smoke. However, when properly dried, peels can be an ingredient in animal feed. Previous attempts over two decades to use peels in animal feed failed to yield profitable options for drying wet peels at commercial scale, but recent research suggests that cassava peels can be processed into high-quality cassava peel (HQCP) products to be used as nutritious, low-cost animal feed ingredients. The core innovation was to adopt the same steps and equipment used for processing cassava roots into gari, the main staple food in the country. When dried, 3 tons of wet peels yield a tonne of healthy and energy-rich animal feed, containing nearly 3,000 kilocalories per kilogram of dry matter (kcal/kgDM). Adopting this innovation at scale in Nigeria’s poultry and fish sectors alone has the potential to turn approximately 3.6 million tons of wet peels into 1.2 million tons of feed ingredients capable of replacing approximately 810,000 tons of largely imported maize. The innovation has great potential to increase feed availability and lower its cost while saving cereals for human consumption, reducing the import bill, creating new business opportunities, and protecting the environment. This research was initiated by CGIAR centres and taken up by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) over the past decade with strategic input from the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock to accelerate development of the innovation, and this chapter documents the potential and progress in taking this innovation to scale

On food system transitions & transformations : comprehensive mapping of the landscape of current thinking, research, and action

A catalogue of recent key publications and initiatives on the topic of food system transitions and transformations from a wide range of angles. Contains hyperlinks for quick connection to web locations

Income intervention quick scan: outgrower schemes and contract farming : Farmer Income Lab Intervention Quick Scan

This quick scan, commissioned by the Farmer Income Lab, is part of a wider research effort looking at, “What are the most effective actions that lead buyers can take to enable smallholder farmers in global supply chains to meaningfully increase their incomes?”. The quick scan provides an overview of the publicly available evidence on the impact of outgrower schemes and contract farming have had on raising farmer income. Such subsidies have had little positive effect on farmer income, are not notably beneficial for women nor is this effect long-term. They have been applied at large scale. This quick scan is part of a series of 16, contributing to a synthesis report “What Works to Raise Farmer’s Income: a Landscape Review”