CGIAR, through its Regional Integrated Initiatives (RIIs), has been working on scaling affordable, context-specific innovations co-developed with local and regional partners to support the transformation of land, water, and food systems through high-quality science since 2021. Despite this extensive and concerted effort by CGIAR and its partners, widespread innovation use is still evasive. Innovations that have been adopted so far have only partially contributed to the urgently sought transformative changes in agrifood systems.

The biggest setbacks come from global challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, geopolitical instability, population growth, rising inequality, and unsustainable diets which pose major hurdles to the sustainability of scaling efforts. The sheer magnitude of these challenges demands disruptive, transdisciplinary approaches with non-linear scaling strategies and broader partnerships to co-create adaptable scaling solutions for long-term, measurable outcomes. To find scalable solutions that address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s climate, research must evolve rapidly.

The new CGIAR 2025-2030 portfolio, through its Scaling for Impact Program, aims to achieve large-scale impact through demand-driven, country-led innovations in agrifood systems that address the challenges of our time. The heart of the program portfolio lies in the close collaboration with other CGIAR programs, enabling feedback around demand, scaling strategies, opportunities for large-scale transformative financing, and pathways to learning and impact evaluation.

It is designed to coordinate and support research and scaling across CGIAR’s entire portfolio by engaging traditional and non-traditional partners. The broader mission of the program is to generate evidence to improve enabling environments, including policy pathways, market linkages, partnerships, institutional arrangements, and mobilizing science and finance. Scaling for Impact will ensure a responsive approach to developing and scaling solutions while strengthening the capacities of regional and national stakeholders and supporting innovation efforts at regional and national levels.

Interestingly, the program is “innovation agnostic,” meaning it will focus on scaling context-specific solutions through deeply embedded partnerships at country and regional levels. The Program does not intend to duplicate the work of development partners or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) but rather act as a catalyst to support regional and national partners in scaling both CGIAR and non-CGIAR solution bundles. The work areas of the Program will, therefore, look to engage and empower, innovate, enable, amplify, and learn. One of the major outcomes of the program includes a repository platform to share analysis, scaling readiness assessments, and impact evaluations.

Keeping an ear to the ground 

To better understand the ground realities and guide its proposal process, the Scaling Science team carried out several rounds of stakeholder consultations, involving donors, researchers, government officials, international and local NGOs, the private sector, and farmers. The initial online seminar for Scaling for Impact (attended by 140 participants representing a diverse range of stakeholders) and the private sector engagement session at the AFS Forum in Rwanda, Kigali, laid the foundation for the multi-stakeholder discussions that ensued.

The first multi-stakeholder discussion was held during the FARA Science and Partnerships for Agriculture Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in July, attended by around 80 participants. At the session, Dr. Inga Jacobs-Mata (Ukama Ustawi Initiative Lead, Director Water, Growth, and Inclusion at IWMI, and Scaling for Impact Writing Team Transition Deputy Director) and Dr. Timothy Krupnik (CIMMYT Country Representative and CGIAR Country Convener, and Scaling for Impact Transition Director), outlined the program and its areas of work.

“We are trying to engage not only with the existing partners but also new and non-traditional regional and national stakeholders to prioritize research and scaling and ensure that whatever we are scaling is responsive to the demand and priorities of national and regional partners. It is very important that what we design is not simply the figments of imagination of a few CGIAR scientists, but it is actually built on a vision of what our stakeholders more broadly within CGIAR are.” 

– Dr Inga Jacobs-Mata, IWMI

This hybrid consultation was followed by three regional, multilingual partner engagement sessions (webinars) covering the regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, attended by around 190 participants, representing yet again a diverse set of stakeholder groups. These sessions gleaned invaluable insights and unique perspectives of different regions and countries, with some messages being echoed.

While the Program’s ambitious vision and goal were well-received by participants, the consultations highlighted specific opportunities and challenges for successful and impactful scaling efforts by the CGIAR.

Engaging partners throughout the innovation development process, and not just during the scaling phase, would reap maximum benefits from partnerships and collaboration. While local research agendas and scaling efforts should be ideally spearheaded by NARS, CGIAR can play an important role in maintaining information exchange with NARS while supporting the co-creation of innovations. There is a need to facilitate multi-stakeholder platforms. If well-defined, such platforms would enable sustained collaboration and provide opportunities for local stakeholders to also explore regional and global collaboration.

Embracing inclusivity requires a systematic approach to effectively empower marginalized communities. Addressing local concerns and identifying and understanding the key drivers of change can lead to better engaged stakeholders, foster innovation, and result in meaningful progress. Considering and addressing power dynamics within countries would also ensure that the most vulnerable are not left out.

Scaling and innovation must align well with the local needs. This could be achieved by applying bottom-up as well as top-down approaches while embracing plurality and diversity to enhance local innovations and resilient practices. The focus should be on the outcome rather than the innovation itself. Constantly listening to and understanding the local context is therefore essential for sustainable and impactful interventions and to avoid the risks in applying generic approaches across regions. Tools and metrics are needed to continuously measure and influence scaling success. And to attract governments and international financial institutions (IFIs) to invest in innovation scaling, economic and financial viability is a decisive factor.

It is crucial to disseminate awareness of innovations across a wider community through capacity building. However, special attention must be given to building and strengthening national systems for better uptake and scaling of innovations. This would involve in training of trainers and using digital and social media for knowledge dissemination with NARS. CGIAR, with its world-class research and technical resources, can play a pivotal role in mentoring and providing support to strengthen NARS. Backed by science, indigenous knowledge too could contribute to contextual and localized solutions and sometimes avoid re-inventing the wheel.

Science Impact at the Last Mile

Learning and gleaning feedback from past initiatives is crucial to reflect and reassess strategies, challenges, and impacts for continuous improvement and for overall program agility in maintaining a healthy scaling momentum. And the scaling effort would also benefit much from integration across the CGIAR portfolio. This is not only important in terms of avoiding duplicated efforts and achieving traction across interventions, but also to address complex and important challenges for successful and impactful scaling, rather than aiming for low-hanging fruits. Partnerships within and outside CGIAR need to be evaluated for better outcomes, while addressing both public and private sector innovation pathways. There is support for establishing a global innovation clearinghouse through CGIAR to assess innovations and provide technical assistance to attract large international financial institution (IFI) investments.

Carrying forward the regional legacy of the CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative for Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) to a global level, the scaling program aims to work closely with existing scaling partners. The CGIAR Scaling Program’s vision for 2030 is mobilizing science, finance, and partnerships to empower country-led transformation through demand-driven scaling of innovative food system solutions. A collaborative and informed approach would be instrumental in driving transformative changes in food security, poverty reduction, gender equality, climate adaptation, and environmental sustainability.

Authors:

• Nora Hanke-Louw, IWMI South Africa Deputy Country Representative and Ukama Ustawi Initiative Project Coordinator

• Timothy Krupnik, CIMMYT Country Representative and CGIAR Country Convener in Bangladesh and Scaling for Impact Transition Director

• Inga Jacobs-Mata, Ukama Ustawi Initiative Lead, Director Water, Growth and Inclusion at IWMI, and Scaling for Impact Writing Team Transition Deputy Director

Featured image: Stakeholders engaging in discussion during Day 2 of the Ukama Ustawi ShareFair, 13–15 March 2024, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Credit: Ukama Ustawi Initiative CGAIR