Theme 1:
Connect
Widely

Align and mobilize the wider stakeholder ecosystem – including organizations and people inside and outside of those organizations – to deliver core program benefits to families, as well as specific value to all stakeholder groups relevant to scaling.

• Scaling begins with the recognition that the innovation is not at the centre of the world in which it operates, but lives in a broad social ecosystem with many participants and influencers, and diverse stakeholders.
• In this matrix of relationships, it is fundamental to invest in building human dignity, respect and agency of the families using the program, as well as all other stakeholder groups in the system. This entails an ethic of radical inclusion, where everyone, including families facing stigma and social exclusion, contributes to the solution.
• In scaling a program, be intentional about how different stakeholder groups can be aligned and mobilized to propel scaling. The key is to understand the priorities and motivations of different players, and to organize to deliver specific value to each group the innovator seeks to engage as a participant in the success of scaling the program (a ‘win-win-win’ result).
• Given resource challenges that accompany scaling, aim to use these strategies with stakeholders to create a bigger pie: Engage and align stakeholders to better use existing resources and to secure new support; combine this strategy with consistent respect for the agency and dignity of all stakeholders to unlock and mobilize latent resources. This can be especially salient at the community level, for example among front-line service providers and families, where recognizing human potential can draw out previously untapped resources.
• Embrace diversity among stakeholders, across sectors and geographies. Work with all stakeholders to identify, in light of their distinctive objectives and motivations, a common purpose, and develop co-owned strategies accordingly. Approach this as a way to bring together similar but previously disconnected initiatives, in combined or complementary roles, to achieve better results.
• At different stages of scaling, particular pivotal groups, if suitably enrolled, can act as powerful catalysts to scale innovations across a wider system. For example, some innovators have found that district leaders, who operate between the local community and the regional or national levels, can be important allies for scale-up.