How SEED-SCALE works: From Theory to Practice

The SEED-SCALE Methodology is a strategy for community change that was identified on the basis of world-wide study of successes in equitable and sustainable community change. Identification and analysis of successful experiences were conducted by Daniel and Carl Taylor with support from UNICEF, and the on-going findings and conclusions were discussed with international experts brought together periodically with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. The Methodology, to be presented in this session, is simple to describe and easy to remember. Its application in the field provokes profound changes in the understanding of government, communities, and outside change agents as to their roles and responsibilities to achieve just and lasting development of communities and their members. The four principles are: base action on previous success, three-way partnership, local data, and local planning. The five criteria are: equity, sustainability, interdependence (and not dependence), holism, and iterativity. The seven annual steps are: create a local coordinating committee, identify past successes, study successes elsewhere, self-evaluation with key indicators, set priorities and functional analysis, take action on at least one priority, monitor activities to make mid-course corrections. The three levels of SCALE will be discussed as a guide to how to sustainably scale-up successes.