When I left a comfortable banking job 23 years ago to pursue a career focused on tackling poverty and hunger in Africa, I believed deeply in one thing: passion, combined with a good idea, could change the world.
Like many others in the development and innovation sectors, I subscribed to a now-familiar theory of change: pilot, replicate, scale.
It sounded simple enough. Test an idea in one community. If it works, expand to others. And once you’ve ‘proven’ the model, take it national, or even global. Rinse and repeat.
Unfortunately, after two decades in this work, I have come to a different conclusion: this traditional notion of scale is broken.
Data backs this up. Between 50 percent and 90 percent of pilot projects fail when taken to scale. And when pilots fail, the underlying issues; poverty, hunger, climate vulnerability, do not wait for us to figure it out. They worsen.
If we are serious about solving these grand challenges, we must confront the uncomfortable truth: our thinking about scale is dangerously outdated.
Scale is not replication
The problem begins with our mindset. Pilots typically occur in controlled environments, places where time, resources, and variables are meticulously managed to guarantee a proof of concept.
But scale? Scale exists in the real world, in all its glorious complexity: politics, culture, history, infrastructure gaps, and human behaviour.
We cannot expect a solution that succeeded in one village, with a specific team and set of conditions, to magically perform the same way in another region, or another country, without serious adaptation. Innovation does not scale like software. It scales like relationships: carefully, locally, and with constant iteration.
Innovations do not operate in silos, neither should innovators
A second critical failure in how we approach scale is isolation. Too often, innovators build solutions in silos, hoping to scale by staying narrowly focused on their ‘niche.’ But ecosystems do not work that way.
Take agriculture. If you are supporting dairy farmers, your innovation is affected by what happens in crop farming, feed production, and rural infrastructure.
At Heifer International, when we worked on tractor delivery services for smallholder farmers, we quickly discovered that the idea could not succeed without a network of trained drivers, local mechanics, and a reliable supply chain for spare parts. Scaling innovation means scaling the entire ecosystem, not just the idea.
Context is not optional
Another fatal flaw? Designing innovation outside the communities it is intended to serve. It is tempting to build for people instead of with them. But when innovation is not rooted in local context, it will likely collapse under the weight of unfamiliar realities.
What works in Lagos might fail in rural Kano. What thrives in Nairobi could flounder in a South African township.
To scale successfully, innovation must be co-created, not imposed. Communities must see themselves in the solution, for their buy-in, their expertise, and ultimately their ownership.
Follow the innovator: Emotionally intelligent capital
Let us talk about funding. The current power dynamic between innovators and funders is unbalanced. Funders sit at one table. Innovators at another. And in between? A maze of gatekeepers: evaluators, regulators, and policy architects who often define success without fully understanding the innovation itself.
We need to rethink capital, not just as patient, but as emotionally intelligent. What does that mean? It is capital that acknowledges it does not have all the answers. That is willing to follow rather than lead.
That adapts to uncertainty, supports learning curves, and listens deeply to the voices on the ground. Capital that enables rather than controls.
If we want innovation to scale, and to do so in a way that is sustainable and inclusive, then we must embrace five paradigm shifts: Shift the mindset from controlled pilots to dynamic and messy realities. Support systems, not silos: Build and fund whole ecosystems.
Design for context: Let the people who will live with the innovation shape it. Rethink financing: Prioritize adaptive, humble, emotionally intelligent capital. Collaborate instead of competing: Innovators need each other to succeed.
The stakes are too high
By 2030, more than 500 million Africans could be living in extreme poverty. Solving this crisis requires an investment of $70 to $300 billion annually. We cannot afford to waste another decade chasing scale the wrong way.
The future of Africa, and much of the Global South, depends on our ability to reimagine how innovation moves from idea to impact. It is time to retire the myth of replication and embrace a more honest, complex, and collaborative model of scale.
Because the real work is not just creating solutions. It is building the systems that allow them to thrive.
Adesuwa Ifedi is the Senior Vice President, Africa Programs, Heifer International
