Scale Doesn’t Belong (Only) to the Government

More and more people in the social sector seem to believe that the government is the best or even only way to scale. In arguing that "Scale Really Matters," for instance, Kevin Starr recently argued that government is "the only realistic doer at exponential scale," and "the only realistic payer at scale." However, a variety of others take this approach, from "Accompanying Governments to Scale" to "Scale That Lasts" (on moving from government partnership to full country ownership); especially in a time of aid contraction, it is common to see the argument that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should take a "low-ego, low-logo approach and let the government both lead and shine."

If government is one very important pathway to scale, however, the private sector—for-profit and not-for-profit alike—is another. And because there is more than one road to scale, it would be unwise to over-index on a single solution. It is worth remembering, after all, that some of the most consequential anti-poverty technologies of the last 30 years, such as mobile money, micro-insurance, pay-as-you-go solar and digitally enabled pest detection, were neither developed nor scaled by a government.

In short, the pathway to scale depends on the nature of the problem, the context and the actors involved.

Please select this link to read the complete article from SSIR.