There are several ways that programmes can scale interventions, including:

• Expanding the reach of an intervention within its original setting. For example, by implementing it across a province rather than just within a district.
• Adapting the intervention, by implementing the same intervention in a new location, whilst tailoring it to that context.
• Deepening the impact of the intervention by collaborating with multiple sectors and better integrating efforts to end VAWG into community systems and other sectors.

Programmes should consider which type of scale they are in the best position to pursue. It is important to recognise that scaling an intervention requires time, resources and capacity. As a result, it is inevitable that programmes will have to make trade-offs between the number of people reached, the integration of multiple sectors into interventions, the locations where interventions are implemented, and the speed, quality, and cost of interventions. Efforts to scale may also have impacts on existing infrastructure and delivery mechanisms, as well as on natural resources and the environment.

When scaling EVAWG programming, it is important to ensure that the scaling process is ethical and upholds the work of existing feminist movement building that has been central to ending VAWG. The Community for Understanding Scaling Practices (CUSP) has identified six principles to underpin ethical scale for social norms programming, which are useful to consider for taking VAWG programmes to scale:

1. Prioritise accountability to communities: Recognise that contextual differences can lead to different outcomes, risks, and repercussions when a programme is scaled. Ensuring accountability to communities requires community involvement in the planning, implementing and monitoring of programmes. It also requires that organisations identify and mitigate power dynamics within communities to avoid reinforcing traditional gendered or intergenerational hierarchies.
2. Fully understand the principles of, and align with, the values of the social change methodology: Efforts to scale programmes require that funders and implementers are led by explicit and internalised commitment to gender equality. Organisations working for social change are more likely to be effective if their values and priorities and the principles guiding the social change methodology are aligned.
3. Ensure adequate time and funding: Programming to end VAWG, especially through social norm change initiatives, requires long-term, flexible funding. Funding conditions and donor influence have the capacity to support or limit ethical efforts to scale programmes. Funders should be guided by women’s rights organisations working to end VAWG, and consider ways to provide adequate funding and supportive conditions to engage in scale up. These conditions will help ensure the “do no harm” principle can be upheld.
4. Maintain fidelity to the elements of the original methodology: Methodologies focused on ending VAWG, especially social norms change efforts, are systematic, theoretically-grounded approaches with multiple essential elements. Efforts to scale programming must identify and remain committed to the core elements and structure of these methodologies. If programmes “over-adapt” methodologies in "selective" ways, picking and choosing elements to include in scaled programmes, this can lead to programmes that are unrecognisable from the original designs and at risk of being ineffective.
5. Involve originators: The organisations that designed the methodologies that other programmes are hoping to take to scale, have deep understanding of how their programmes work in practice, challenges likely to arise, and how to overcome these. They are in a unique and strong position to provide guidance to ensure quality adaptations for their programmes. These organisations should be consulted during the adaptation and implementation process.
6. Re-examine the role of stakeholders in effective and ethical scaling: When considering taking a programme to scale, consider which organisations are best placed to do so effectively. It is important to question assumptions that government, the private sector, and/or large organisations are always the most effective mechanism for driving and implementing these programmes. In many cases, WROs and CSOs are excluded from the design and implementation of scaling efforts. However, these organisations are often best placed to understand the contextual needs of communities, challenges that are likely to arise and how to overcome them, and aligned with the values of the original programme methodology. WROs and CSOs should therefore be front and centre of efforts to scale programmes to end VAWG. Identifying and generating government commitment to scale is also key to ensuring sustainability and local ownership.

Based on their learnings of scaling gender-based social norms approaches, the Community for Understanding Scaling Practices (CUSP) has recommended including at least seven key elements in a feminist approach to scale, as shown in the box and diagram here.

Programmes pursuing scale should develop clear plans to harness opportunities, understand any constraints, and mitigate against risks. Scaling strategies should be developed in a participatory way with local actors to ensure they are informed by contextual expertise. Efforts to develop strategies should:

• Map contextual opportunities and constraints. These could be linked to the policy, institutional, political or socio-cultural environment. Once identified, programmes should identify ways to build on these opportunities and adapt scaling efforts to work within the constraints.
• Assess and mitigate contextual risks. Efforts to scale interventions are prone to contextual and programmatic risks, which can lead to a variance in expected outcomes once an intervention is scaled. Different risks are likely to emerge at different stages of the scaling process. These risks should be monitored, assessed and mitigated on an ongoing basis. This is especially the case when a scaling approach is focused on reaching larger numbers of people and so will be increasingly impacted by national systems, actors and political economy challenges.
• Ensure strategies are flexible enough to allow for learning and adaptation. Given the lack of predictability of how an intervention will interact with different contextual opportunities and constraints, strategies should allow for learning and adaptation. Scaling strategies may also benefit from a phased approach, so that evidence of early impact can be used to generate support and financing and to help address contextual constraints such as policy barriers or lack of political buy-in.
• Ensure scaling efforts are adequately financed. Scaling efforts will be put at risk by inadequate financial resources. Interventions should conduct realistic cost estimates based on all the tasks involved in scaling initiatives and sustaining delivery at scale. They should ensure scaling efforts are designed with financial constraints in mind to ensure ambition and capacity are aligned.
• Ensure scale efforts are sustainable. Sustainability mechanisms aim to ensure that programme goals are not jeopardised by contextual factors and that progress continues following the end of a programme due to leadership and buy-in from local, national or regional stakeholders. Scale efforts should develop sustainability strategies to support the ethical transition of scaled-up initiatives to local organisations.
• Engage women’s rights organisations (WROs) as partners. WROs are key to ensuring efforts to scale are informed by local knowledge, relationships and networks. Historically, International NGOs have often been in the strongest position to take initiatives to scale, due to their financial and human resources. This often excludes WROs from decision-making processes. Efforts to scale interventions should address this power imbalance by committing to developing equitable partnerships with WROs. Programmes should ensure partners have the necessary resources, management and governance structures to effectively support scaling processes. Where appropriate, they should provide resources and technical assistance to support WROs meet the compliance demands of funders.
• Build relationships with local authorities and other actors to support scale. Programmes should consider how to engage with other actors to maximise the impact of scaling initiatives and to identify and mitigate any challenges that may arise due to resistance from them.

Learning and adaptation are essential components of effective scale efforts. Efforts to scale a programme are likely to come up against new and unexpected opportunities and constraints. Scaling efforts should document these challenges and efforts to overcome them and use this learning to adapt interventions, so they are better suited to the new context. For more information, see these pages on how to develop a monitoring and learning plan and how to capture and share learning.

Due to the limited pool of approaches with rigorous evidence they are ready to scale, donors and funders should consider developing flexible funding mechanisms, including ‘transition grants’ that can help facilitate the journey to scale. For example, if funders want to support smaller organisations to scale initiatives, it may be necessary to adapt the evidence requirements and the size and flexibility of grants.

Spotlight Initiative’s Small Grants Policy is a funding mechanism used by some UN agencies to increase their reach to national, local and grassroots organisations. These organisations often face barriers to partnering with and being funded by the UN. In 2022, Spotlight Initiative used this mechanism to channel core, institutional funding to local organisations. In Mexico, Spotlight Initiative provided flexible and accessible funding to over 40 feminist and grassroots organisations working with survivors of violence. The Small Grants model has supported recipient organisations to reach 3,450 women directly and 24,000 indirectly across the three years of the programme. It has promoted organisational capacity, supported expand the scope of work for some organisations, and enabled women’s organisations to build their networks in order to strengthen prevention efforts.