Routledge Scaling Impact: Innovation for the Public Good

Scaling Impact introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. Inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, this book presents a synthesis of unrivalled diversity and grounded ingenuity. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, and an important challenge to the predominant more-is-better paradigm of scaling. For organisations and individuals working to change the world for the better, scaling impact is a common goal and a well-founded aim. The world is changing rapidly, and seemingly intractable problems like environmental degradation or accelerating inequality press us to do better for each other and our environment as a global community. Challenges like these appear to demand a significant scale of action, and here the authors argue that a more creative and critical approach to scaling is both possible and essential. To encourage uptake and co-development, the authors present actionable principles that can help organisations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies. Scaling Impact is essential reading for development and innovation practitioners and professionals, but also for researchers, students, evaluators, and policymakers with a desire to spark meaningful change. Review "Scaling social innovation is the great challenge of our days. Scaling Impact: Innovation for the Public Good contributes a new, eminently useable analytical framework thoughtfully applied to specific case examples that will help the readers in finding their way through the complex challenge of scaling for impact. McLean and Gargani’s four guiding principles for scale, their focus on scaling pathways, their recognition that scaling involves tradeoffs, their concept of dynamic evaluation throughout the scaling process―these are just a few of the important take-aways from this important book. The clarity of their evidence-based analytical approach will appeal to the researcher, the clarity of their recommendations to the practitioner." ― Johannes Linn, Senior Non-Resident Fellow, The Brookings Institution and former Vice-President, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA "This book is a thought-provoking contribution to a wide gap in the evaluation literature that demands urgent attention. The pressure is on for rapid evaluative learning to enable scalable, effective action on prevailing challenges. The authors offer a fresh approach to the concept of scaling and the integration of a flexible form of evaluation to deliver the right kind of information at the right time to amplify benefits to people and planet." ― Penny Hawkins, Principal Creative Consulting and former Head of Evaluation, UK Department for International Development, Glasgow and London, UK "Scaling Impact: Innovation for the Public Good is an important contribution to our understanding of what works in development practice. McLean and Gargani first propose a set of four guiding principles for scaling social innovation, and then proceed to illustrate the relevance of these principles with the help of carefully selected and insightful case-studies. The book will be of great value to scholars and practitioners alike." ― Kunal Sen, Director, United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki, Finland "This book makes a timely and important contribution to filling current knowledge gaps in how best to scale up potentially life-transforming social innovations. Drawing on experience and wisdom garnered from a diversity of settings around the world, it provides valuable insights and principles which will, undoubtedly, light the path forward for those striving to overcome the challenges of scaling, particularly in low- and middle-income settings." ― Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, S