A concept penned in The Stanford Social Innovation by Jeffrey Bradach and Abe Grindle, looked at growing what works and transformative scale. The application of this concept for truly global issues like the lack of surgery in sub-Saharan Africa is critical.
The Lancet Commission Review on Global Surgery found that of the world’s population of over 7 billion people, some 5 billion (70% of our population) are unable to access essential surgery (safe, timely, affordable surgery). As a result, ~18 million people die each year.
How can donors, philanthropists and organiations help to solve a problem of this proportion? How can truly transformative scale be achieved?
In their article Bradach and Grindel suggest a number of strategies including:
1. Distribute through existing platforms
2. Recruit (and train) others to deliver the solution
3. Unbundle and scale up the parts that have the greatest impact
4. Use technology to reach a larger audience
5. Don’t just build organizations and programs, strengthen a field
6. Change public systems
7. Embrace the need for policy change
8. Don’t ignore for-profit models for scale
9. Alter people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours
For more information see The Stanford Social Innovation, article Jeffrey Bradach and Abe Grindel.
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