Impactful Adolescent Family Planning Programs at Scale: Navigating the Trade-Offs

, , &

Table of Contents

Despite clear evidence on what works to support improvements in ASRH outcomes, taking impactful programming to scale is rarely straightforward. This brief draws on experiences from the A360 and Connect projects in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Tanzania to explore the difficult—but necessary—trade-off questions implementers face when designing for both impact and scale: 

  • Do we invest in demand creation or in strengthening service delivery? 
  • Do we keep interventions simple to facilitate scale—or intervene deeply to mitigate root causes?  
  • Whose goals do we prioritize—government or donor? 
  • Do we prioritize reaching the groups most impacted by inequities—or use a more broad approach to reach all? 

These and other trade-offs determine whether programs remain impactful at scale—or risk becoming scalable but ineffective. We hope this resource sparks reflection and conversation on how to build adolescent family planning programs that are not only effective, but lasting. 

Read the full brief

Download

Related Posts

A Framework and Key Elements for Mainstreaming Scaling in Funder Organizations

ScalingCoP March 30, 2026

As part of a comprehensive action-research initiative on mainstreaming scaling in funder organizations, the Scaling Community of Practice developed a framework for assessing the nature and extent of integration of transformational scaling practices in funder organizations operational approach. The framework was distilled in a “Mainstreaming Tracker Tool” (MTT), which allows funder organizations to plan, track and adapt their mainstreaming efforts. The framework consisted of 13 elements, of which 6 are elements that enable the mainstreaming process, and 7 are elements that relate to the operationalization of mainstreaming scaling.

Read More »

RHNS Program Brochure

ScalingCoP March 30, 2026

Food and nutrition security is under unprecedented threat worldwide. Despite decades of international commitments, over 300 million people are living with extreme hunger. Projections show that we’ve stopped making progress on the problem – that we’ll have the same proportion of food insecure people in 2030 as
we did in 2015.

Read More »

SUBSCRIBE

Don’t miss a thing. Become a member by joining our mailing list and get fresh updates, insights, and upcoming opportunities delivered straight to your inbox for free!