Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2010

Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty

Johannes F. Linn, Arntraud Hartmann, Homi Kharas, Richard Kohl, Barbara Massler

October 2010

The Brookings Institution

Abstract

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has for many years stressed innovation, knowledge and scaling up as essential ingredients of its strategy to combat rural poverty in developing countries. This institutional review of IFAD's approach to scaling up is the first of its kind: A team of development experts were funded by a small grant from IFAD to assess IFAD's track record in scaling up successful interventions, its operational policies and processes, instruments, resources and incentives, and to provide recommendations to management for how to turn IFAD into a scaling-up institution. Beyond IFAD, this institutional scaling up review is a pilot exercise that can serve as an example for other development institutions.