Blog When a good innovation isn’t enough: Rethinking what it takes to scale in Kenya

This is the focus of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT through CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program. The Enabling Environment for Scaling Agricultural Innovations Sourcebook brings evidence on policies, institutions, markets and social factors into the same conversation. The Kenya Scaling Co-Lab applied that perspective to one central idea: scaling is not what happens after innovation. It is part of how innovation becomes impact. 

Agricultural research has often treated scaling as replication: develop a solution, prove that it works and expand its use. In practice, innovations enter systems already shaped by regulation, finance, infrastructure, markets, institutions and social norms. A productive seed variety may remain unavailable through local distribution channels. A digital advisory service may offer valuable information but struggle where connectivity, trust or institutional ownership are weak. A promising bio-input may perform well agronomically but still face limited demand. 

The Alliance’s work on enabling environments starts from this systems reality. The question is not only how to promote an innovation, but what needs to change around it so adoption can last. Dr. Inga Jacobs-Mata captured the role of the Enabling Environment Lab simply: "we sweep and we clear the way."  

The value of the Enabling Environment Sourcebook and related tools is that they turn broad concerns such as low adoption into more practical questions: Which condition is blocking progress? Who can influence it? What realistic action could change it? Barriers rarely sit in one place. Access may depend simultaneously on regulation, distribution, finance, information, trust and demand, so progress often requires coordinated action rather than a single technical fix.

That coordination is the essence of an enabling ecosystem. Policy actors, researchers, businesses, funders and communities each hold part of the scaling pathway. A ministry may address regulation, a business may strengthen distribution, research may generate evidence, and communities determine whether a solution is relevant enough to sustain. Jonathan Mockshell described the goal as helping actors identify "which part of the system they can hold to improve the scaling of innovations". This also makes institutional ownership essential. Scaling becomes more durable when actions fit within existing mandates, budgets and partnerships, and when organizations can revisit them as policies, markets and constraints evolve.

Food systems are interconnected, yet innovations are often designed and evaluated one at a time. The Kenya Scaling Co-Lab examined bundles of complementary solutions, including organic fertilizer with vermicompost and solar borehole pumps; agripreneur networks linked with soil testing, seed and subsidies; an agroecology policy framework; a last-mile platform connecting inputs, insurance and climate information; and an integrated fish-production model. The point was not to add complexity, but to reveal the dependencies that determine whether one innovation can succeed.

A better input has limited value without advice, finance or reliable markets. A digital platform only helps if the services behind it function. Increased production may bring little benefit if storage, processing and distribution cannot absorb it. This shifts the question from "How do we scale this innovation?" to "What technical and enabling conditions need to move together?" Context remains essential: the same package may require different partners or delivery models in a pastoral area and a highland county. The Alliance’s broader work in Kenya similarly connects climate action, soil health, biodiversity, digital inclusion and market access, recognizing that sustainable scale comes from systems that work together rather than isolated solutions.

Workshops can generate energy and recommendations. The harder test is what changes afterwards. The Kenya Scaling Co-Lab was designed to feed into enabling-environment action plans that organizations can carry forward within their own mandates. The emphasis is on feasible action, institutional ownership and learning over time, because policies, markets and constraints continue to evolve as innovations reach more users.

The six-month horizon gives that learning a practical rhythm: implement actions, review progress and identify which barriers have shifted. For the Alliance, this reflects a wider ambition within CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program: scientific strength must be matched by systems capable of carrying innovation forward. The most useful question is therefore no longer only, "Is this innovation ready to scale?" It is also, "Is the system ready to support it, and what needs to change if it is not?" That shift creates a stronger basis for partnership because each actor can see where its decisions matter. Great innovations may begin in research, but sustainable scale is built across institutions, markets and communities.