Scaling-up integrated local development innovations is key to achieving sustainable and equitable development, especially when these innovations are driven by national and local governments and actors. In order to best support countries to scale up proven local successes and achieve transformational changes, the UNDP Poverty Practice of the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) works to build a solid knowledge base and to uncover systematically the enabling environment and drivers for scaling up. In this context, together with the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation we have jointly initiated a series of case studies of “scaled up” development cases. Learning from these country cases, we aim to identify key policy, institutional and political enablers and drivers for a successful scaling up process, and to inspire development partners to transform innovations into sustainable development results.

These case studies demonstrate how countries, ranging from middle income countries (such as China, Costa Rica and Mexico) to low income and least developed countries (such as Mongolia and Nepal), were able to drive these processes. Their success, built on leadership and vision, was mainly relying on their own resources and human capacities. Each country story showcases a different development challenge and response.