Scale Runs Through Government. How Do We Invest in It?
The development model for scale has changed.
Philanthropy once had a relatively familiar role: fund a promising idea, prove that it works, and hope a large development partner could take it to scale. Increasingly, the institution expected to deliver at scale is government.
That changes what philanthropy needs to invest in.
A proven intervention does not scale itself. Someone inside government has to understand it, adapt it, budget for it, build support around it, manage competing priorities, and keep it running long after the original grant has ended. Whether an intervention becomes a sustainable public service can ultimately depend on the civil servants who show up and the skills, judgment, relationships, and values they bring with them.
Yet relatively few funders invest directly in that capability.
This creates a contradiction at the heart of many efforts to achieve systems change. Funders increasingly expect grantees to partner with government because government is where sustainable scale lives. At the same time, comparatively little investment goes into strengthening governments’ own ability to absorb what works, partner effectively, and deliver it at scale.
We are asking a lot of governments while investing very little in their ability to deliver on it.
So why won’t this get funded?
This session will bring together the people on both sides of that question: government leaders who have been expected to absorb and scale externally funded programs, funders trying to move from financing projects toward financing systems change, and implementers working to strengthen public-sector capacity.
The goal is to have the version of the conversation they rarely get to have honestly with one another.
What to expect
A small working session where everyone in the room is expected to contribute.
Two or three short provocations from government, philanthropy, and implementation will establish the tensions before opening into facilitated discussion. Participants will be pushed to move beyond general agreement that “government capacity matters” and get specific about what investing in it actually requires.
What do funders need to see before they will invest? What kinds of capacity are governments actually asking for? Where have attempts to strengthen public institutions worked, and where has the investment disappeared when a grant ended? How should implementers change if their ultimate goal is not to scale their own organization but to help government deliver without them?
The session will inform a short public synthesis capturing what funders would actually need to see to invest in government capacity for scale. The aim is something concrete enough for implementers to build against and funders to be held to.
Who this is for
This session is for funders serious about systems change, government and public-sector leaders, and implementers working to strengthen government capacity, particularly those wrestling with how proven interventions move from externally funded projects into sustainable public systems.
What you will get out of it
A candid look at why government capacity remains difficult to fund despite its importance to scale
Perspectives from government, philanthropy, and implementation on where current approaches break down
Greater clarity about what funders would need to see to invest in government scaling capacity
Lessons from efforts that have successfully strengthened public institutions, as well as those that disappeared when funding ended
A chance to shape a practical public synthesis that can inform future funding and implementation
Hosted by
Emerging Public Leaders