Toolbox

Amartya Sen provides an overview in Development as Freedom

See also Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach by Martha Nussbaum

An inspiring program that brings relevant ideas to life for whole child development in Indigenous communities: CanalCanoa: Strengthening indigenous values to improve early childhood development by Kurt Shaw and Rita de Cácia Oenning da Silva

An example of conceptual work applying the capabilities approach to child development: The Missing Dimensions of Children’s Well-being and Well-becoming in Education Systems: Capabilities and Philosophy for Children by Mario Biggeri and Marina Santi

A basic resource is the Convention on the Rights of the Child from the United Nations and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child from the Organization of African Unity (African Union)

For an example of a human rights case focusing on human dignity see Manuel Wackenheim v France from the United Nations

Useful comprehensive frameworks and toolkits for scaling include:

• Scaling Up—From Vision to Large-Scale Change: A Management Framework for Practitioners from Management Systems International
• Scaling Up—From Vision to Large-Scale Change: Tools for Practitioners from Management Systems International
• Scaling Up: A Path to Effective Development by Arntraud Hartmann and Johannes Linn
• Scaling up health service delivery: from pilot innovations to policies and programmes by Ruth Simmons, Peter Fajans, et al.
• Toolkit: Strategy to Scale Social Innovation for Development by John Lawrence et al.

See also this recent paper on scaling principles, with a useful bibliography as well: Scaling Up: Scaling Principles.  by Richard Kohl and Johannes Linn, from the Global Community of Practice on Scaling Development Outcomes

Resources on scaling in early childhood development specifically include:

• The Scale-Up Effect in Early Childhood and Public Policy: Why Interventions Lose Impact at Scale and What We Can Do About It by John List, Dana Suskind, et al.
• An Integrated Stage-Based Framework for Implementation of Early Childhood Programs and Systems by Allison Metz, Sandra Naoom, et al.
• Achieving Lasting Impact at Scale, Part One: Behavior Change and the Spread of Family Health Innovations in Low-Income Countries from Social Research Unit at Dartington, UK
• Achieving Lasting Impact at Scale, Part Two: Assessing System Readiness for Delivery of Family Health Innovations at Scale from Social Research Unit at Dartington, UK
• Frameworks for effective implementation and scaling up of early childhood development interventions: a review of the literature by Vanessa Cavallera, Mark Tomlinson, et al.
• Gaining momentum: advancing early childhood development by Joan Lombardi
• Creating Vibrant and Sustainable Rural Communities: A model for developing sustainability in Early Child Development (ECD) centres,  Mbashe, South Africa, from Bulungula Incubator
• What implementation evidence matters: scaling-up nurturing interventions that promote early childhood development by Pia Britto, Manpreet Singh, et al.

Syntheses based on innovations we have worked with include:

• Scaling early child development: what are the barriers and enablers? by Vanessa Cavallera, Mark Tomlinson, et al.
• Practical considerations for transitioning early childhood interventions to scale: lessons from the Saving Brains portfolio by James Radner, Marvin Ferrer, et al.

On leadership in ECD settings, cross-cultural community engagement, and integrating science with local wisdom:

• Tapping into Leadership in Early Childhood Development Centers: Learning from the Lived Experiences of Principals in South African Townships by Sibonelo Blose and Evelyn Muteweri
• Enculturating science: Community-centric design of behavior change interactions for accelerating health impact by Vishwajeet Kumar, Aarti Kumar, et al.

Relevant resources from a global community of practice on collaboration, leadership and social change: www.barefootguide.org

For a fuller introduction to stakeholder engagement in the spirit of this discussion see Stakeholder Ecosystems: Unlocking Sustainable Impact at Scale by Jasmine Lam, Nathaniel Foote, et al.

For more perspectives in the same vein see:

• Thematic Brief on Stakeholders: Eco-system Builders from Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains
• Stakeholder Engagement Resources from Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains

See also:

• Early childhood education in Africa: Between overambitious global objectives, the need to reflect local interests, and educational choices by Abdeljalil Akkari
• Enculturating science: Community-centric design of behavior change interactions for accelerating health impact by Vishwajeet Kumar, Aarti Kumar, et al.
• Integrated Innovation from Grand Challenges Canada/ Grand Défis Canada, Peter Singer, et al.

The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative is a multi-stakeholder knowledge mobilization effort, with a website featuring a wide range of tools: Alberta Family Wellness Initiative from Palix Foundation

On engaging youth in stakeholder analysis, see Engaging youth in stakeholder analysis for developing community-based digital innovations for mental health of young people in Ingwavuma community, in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa by Innocent Tinashe Mutero, Tafadzwa Mindu, et al.

Stakeholder engagement tools:

• TruePoint Stakeholder Value Creation Chart
• A good general mapping tool is Kumu
• DIY Toolkit: Development Impact and You from The Rockefeller Foundation includes stakeholder mapping tools among many other resources
• Also: Stakeholder Analysis: Winning Support for Your Projects from Mind Tools and Spidergram People & Connections Map from Powerpoor Project

Examples of tools and approaches for Community Asset Mapping include:

• Community Asset Mapping: Visualize Community Resources from Creately
• Sustainable Communities: A Guide to Community Asset Mapping from Falls Brook Centre
• Participatory Asset Mapping: A Community Research Lab Toolkit by Janice Burns, Dagmar Pudrzynska, et al.
• A Community Asset Mapping Programme for Roots-driven Sustainable Socio-economic Change in Rural South Africa by Melanie Nicolau and Christine Delport
• Guiding principles for systems change in early childhood development can be found at Three Principles to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families from The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

For further perspectives on systems thinking and systems change see:

• Mixed-method evidence review of the potential role of systems thinking in accelerating and scaling promotion of early child development by Kate Milner, Shekufeh Zonji, et al.
• Resources from the Systems Innovation Initiative

A Measurement for Change resource kit: Measurement for Change: Using your Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system to generate effective decision making from Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains

A Data for Action resource kit: Data for Action: Good data management is essential to building sustainable impact at scale from Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains

A resource for Indigenous-led evaluation: The Waawiyeyaa Evaluation Tool by Andrea Johnston

On building evidence to inform early childhood programming: Expanding the evidence base to drive more productive early childhood investment by Jack Shonkoff, James Radner, et al.

Frontiers in Public Health series on using evidence for effective delivery and its introductory paper on Measurement for Change:

• Effective Delivery of Integrated Interventions in Early Childhood: Innovations in Evidence Use, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning by Jane Fisher, Abhay Gaidhane, et al.
• The Aspirations of Measurement for Change by Joachim Krapels, Lotte van der Haar, et al.

Resources from the special issue of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences on implementing early childhood programs include:

• Implementation Research and Practice for Early Childhood Development by Aisha Yousafzai, Frances Aboud, et al.
• What implementation evidence matters: scaling-up nurturing interventions that promote early childhood development by Pia Britto, Manpreet Singh, et al.
• Reporting guidelines for implementation research on nurturing care interventions designed to promote early childhood development by Aisha Yousafzai, Frances Aboud, et al.

This entire special issue is also relevant to Theme 2: Informing design and implementation for early child development programmes by Joy Lawn, et al.

From the 2021 book  The Scale-Up Effect in Early Childhood and Public Policy: Why Interventions Lose Impact at Scale and What We Can Do About It edited by List, Suskind, and Supplee:

• Sustaining Impact after Scaling Using Data and Continuous Feedback by David Chambers and Wynne Norton
• Measurement Built for Scale: Designing and Using Measures of Intervention and Outcome that Facilitate Scaling Up by Scott McConnell and Howard Goldstein
• The Science of Using Science: A New Framework for Understanding the Threats to Scaling Evidence-Based Policies by Omar Al-Ubaydli, Min Sok Lee, et al.

Three classic texts on relevant aspects of evaluation and learning:

• Utilization-Focused Evaluation by Michael Quinn Patton and Charmagne Campbell-Patton
• Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use by Michael Quinn Patton
• Evaluating Social Innovation by Hallie Preskill and Tanya Beer

Related resources, from the past decade of experience with developmental evaluation:

• A Developmental Evaluation Companion by Jamie Gamble, Kate McKegg, et al.
• The Developmental Evaluation Resource Library hosted by the McConnell Foundation.

On communities of practice:

• Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge by Etienne Charles Wenger, Richard McDermott, et al.
• Introduction to communities of practice: a brief overview of the concept and its uses by Etienne Wenger-Trayner and Beverly Wenger-Trayner

On knowledge and the subsidiarity principle: The uses of knowledge in global health by Seye Abimbola

The TruePoint Center’s CLEAR initiative includes cases, a framework for resilience and adaptation, and a self-diagnostic tool.

On the connection to the large-scale Sustainable Development Goals: Advancing the Sustainable Development Goal for Education Through Developmentally Informed Approaches to Measurement by Alice Wuermli, Antje von Suchodoletz, et al.

Specific leadership strategies – including rebalancing leadership to privilege the front line, and adapting leadership approaches across a long-term, multi-phase journey – are addressed as additional themes here and here, with associated resources and tools.

See also Grand Challenges Canada’s Gender Equality Portal, the Saving Brains program’s Gender Equality Resource Kit, the Gender and Development Network, and World Vision’s approach to gender equality and social inclusion, plus:

• Achieving Transformative Feminist Leadership: A Toolkit for Organizations and Movements by Srilatha Batliwala and Michel Friedman
• Visit also Gender at Work webpage

• Lab and Village: Reimagining how science can serve children by James Radner, Karlee Silver, et al.
• Implementation evaluation of a leadership development intervention for improved family experience in a private paediatric care hospital, Pakistan by Muneera Rasheed, Ayesha Hussain, et al.
• Mobilizing Science to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty by James Radner and Jack Shonkoff in Investing in What Works for America’s Communities from The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Beyond the business unit by Russell Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote, et al.  
• Making solutions the answer by Nathaniel Foote, Jay Galbraith, et al.
• The uses of knowledge in global health by Seye Abimbola
• Development of an on-job mentorship programme to improve nursing experience for enhanced patient experience of compassionate care by Alma Arshad Hookmani, Naureen Lalani, et al.

On collaborative leadership and related concepts:

• The Barefoot Guide Connection on Generative Leadership

• Perceptions regarding the impact of Ubuntu and servant leadership on employee engagement in the workplace by Roger Muller, Elroy Smith, et al.
• 10 Principles of Servant Leadership (With Examples) from Indeed Editorial Team
• Servant Leadership: Putting Your Team First, and Yourself Second from Mind Tools
• Tapping into Leadership in Early Childhood Development Centers: Learning from the Lived Experiences of Principals in South African Townships by Sibonelo Blose and Evelyn Muteweri
• Webinar on Leadership Essentials by Erwin Schwella

• An Integrated Stage-Based Framework for Implementation of Early Childhood Programs and Systems by Allison Metz, Sandra Naoom, et al.
• Scaling Out, Scaling Up, Scaling Deep: Advancing Systemic Social Innovation and the Learning Processes to Support it by Darcy Riddell and Michele-Lee Moore
• Achieving Lasting Impact at Scale, Part One: Behavior Change and the Spread of Family Health Innovations in Low-Income Countries from Social Research Unit at Dartington, UK
• Achieving Lasting Impact at Scale, Part Two: Assessing System Readiness for Delivery of Family Health Innovations at Scale from Social Research Unit at Dartington, UK
• Creating Vibrant and Sustainable Rural Communities: A model for developing sustainability in Early Child Development (ECD) centres from Bulungula Incubator
• Early childhood education in Africa: Between overambitious global objectives, the need to reflect local interests, and educational choices by Abdeljalil Akkari
• The power of positive deviance by David Marsh, Dirk Schroeder, et al.
• Scaling: Innovation’s Missing Middle by Dan McClure and Ian Gray
• Scaling early child development: what are the barriers and enablers? by Vanessa Cavallera, Mark Tomlinson, et al.
• Practical considerations for transitioning early childhood interventions to scale: lessons from the Saving Brains portfolio by James Radner, Marvin Ferrer, et al.
• Global Experience of Community Health Workers for Delivery of Health Related Millennium Development Goals: A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems by Zulfiqar Bhutta, Zohra Lassi, et al.

On scaling social enterprise:

• Scaling Up Social Enterprise Innovations: Approaches and Lessons by Natalia Agapitova and Johannes Linn
• Scaling through Social Entrepreneurship from Challenges Canada, Saving Brains

On systems thinking and systems change:

• Mixed-method evidence review of the potential role of systems thinking in accelerating and scaling promotion of early child development by Kate Milner, Shekufeh Zonji, et al.
• Resources from the Systems Innovation Initiative

On financing for scale:

Financing Scale in Humanitarian Educational Innovation from Humanitarian Education Accelerator