Academy for Educational Development
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GreenCOM Goes to SCALE
GreenCOM Goes to SCALE AED’s longest-running environmental project, GreenCOM, has in the past 12 years spread to more than 30 countries on four continents. Through education and communication, the project has sought to help people in developing countries better protect the environment and more effectively conserve their natural resources. "Our overarching goal has always been to help people improve their livelihoods and use natural resources sustainably," said Rick Bossi, vice president and director of the AED Center for Environmental Strategies. "We’ve learned that to achieve our goals, we need to use a wide variety of tools and involve a broad cross-section of society. That’s how the SCALE approach was born," said Bossi. SCALE, which stands for System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and the Environment, helps people at national, regional, community, and household levels find new ways to work together. At the heart of this concept is a simple equation: More people getting involved to solve a specific problem SCALE combines a number of methods for achieving change including social mobilization, mass communication, social marketing, and conflict resolution. The approach addresses not only environmental interests but also concerns about economics, governance, and civil society. SCALE in the Real World The SCALE approach has been used in several settings. In Egypt, for example, it helped to link previously unconnected groups in coordinated action to protect the Red Sea. By using the SCALE approach, GreenCOM’s efforts have led to:
SCALE was also used in Jordan under a recent five-year program called Water Efficiency and Public Information for Action. By engaging diverse segments of society in unique ways, this program helped Jordan’s largest water users reduce their consumption of water by 18 percent in just four years. More information on this program is available in a recent AED publication called From Crisis to Consensus (pdf). At present, AED is applying the SCALE approach on a new agricultural project in Morocco to boost the production of medicinal plants. The goal is to link farmers with agribusiness enterprises, research institutions, government agencies, and other market players. Strengthened relationships among these groups will improve the flow of information and knowledge critical to the growth of this sector. SCALE Training Over the past year, GreenCOM staff have been testing a SCALE training curriculum in domestic and international settings. The curriculum covers topics that range from creating effective coalitions and managing conflict to conducting social science research. After attending a training workshop, Denis Hernandez, who works for a local environmental organization in Panama, said that initially he thought that by using SCALE he would develop relationships with only two or three institutions. "The SCALE workshop gave me the capacity to develop alliances with a variety of stakeholders to achieve success," he said. "Since the workshop we have signed working agreements with the ministry of education, the ministry of health, and [the Foundation for Social Action of] Panama." In early 2006, GreenCOM will co-host a three-week course on SCALE with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), one of Latin America’s leading educational institutions. The course is designed to help managers of development programs increase the impact of their work through the application of the SCALE approach. For More Information GreenCOM, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has published a booklet called Going to SCALE (pdf) to explain this approach in more detail. For additional information, contact Rick Bossi.
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