If you’ve spent any time in the world of digital development, you know the pattern: a promising tech pilot launches with donor fanfare, shows early results, but then… fizzles out before reaching true scale.
I’m Apoorv Pal and I’ve seen this cycle play out too many times—from health apps in East Africa to AI tools in education, to open data platforms that never quite get off the ground.
It’s made me ask:
- What does it actually take for a technology solution to become something a government truly owns, funds, and protects for the long haul?
Four Lenses on Sustainable Scale
Over the past few months, I’ve been wrestling with this question and found myself returning to three (now four) powerful frameworks from leaders in our field. I also want to add my own layer—because while these frameworks are essential, there’s a lived reality behind every successful (or failed) scale-up that’s often missing from the theory.
1. Kevin Starr: The Reality Check
Kevin Starr’s blunt challenge is still echoing: “We always knew governments had to be the doers at scale. Now they have to be the payers too.” In my own work, I’ve seen how solutions that look affordable on a donor’s spreadsheet can be totally out of reach for a ministry’s budget. Starr’s point is a gut-check: if a government can’t or won’t pay for it, it’s not a solution—it’s a mirage.
We often underestimate the ongoing costs—maintenance, support, upgrades, and training. I remember a digital health pilot in West Africa that dazzled with its initial results. But when the grant ended, the local health ministry simply couldn’t absorb the recurring costs.
The lesson? If you want to see your innovation survive, design for the budget realities from the very start.
2. Ognen Plavevski: The Startup-Driven Ecosystem
Ognen Plavevski’s approach resonates with me because I’ve watched too many one-off projects die in isolation. His vision of startup-driven, mission-aligned ecosystems is about building a support network—shared standards, reusable components, and a culture of collaboration—that outlasts any single grant.
In my experience, the projects that survive are the ones that tap into this broader ecosystem, not those that try to go it alone.
Think of Kenya’s M-Pesa. While it started as a pilot, it thrived because it plugged into a broader ecosystem of financial services, regulatory support, and entrepreneurial energy. It wasn’t just a great product—it was a catalyst for a whole new market.
3. Wayan Vota: The Budget Line Litmus Test
Wayan Vota’s test is the cleanest I’ve heard:
- “If your solution has its own line item in a ministry’s budget, you’ve made it.”
This is the moment when a project becomes public infrastructure—funded, staffed, and protected from donor whiplash. I’ve seen the difference firsthand: projects with a budget line get upgraded and defended during tough times; those without are the first to go when money gets tight.
I once worked on an education data platform that had enthusiastic users but never made it into the ministry’s annual budget. When a new minister arrived and priorities shifted, the platform was quietly shelved. Contrast that with India’s Aadhaar: once it became a budgeted line item, it was upgraded, expanded, and woven into the fabric of public service delivery.
4. Tim O’Reilly: Government as a Platform
Tim O’Reilly’s “Government as a Platform” idea has been gaining traction, and I’ve come to see its relevance in my own work. Rather than building siloed solutions, the real opportunity is in helping governments create open platforms—shared data, APIs, and standards—that anyone can build on.
When this happens, innovation doesn’t stop with the pilot; it accelerates, because others can plug in and extend what’s already there.
Estonia’s X-Road and IndiaStack are powerful examples. They didn’t just digitize services—they created platforms that enabled a whole ecosystem of public and private innovation. This approach doesn’t just help governments scale; it makes them magnets for ongoing improvement.
Apoorv’s Perspective: The Missing Ingredient
Here’s what all these perspectives have taught me: Sustainable scale isn’t just about technology, funding, or even policy. It’s about relationships and trust. The projects I’ve seen make the leap from pilot to policy are the ones where implementers, government champions, and even end users are in it together from day one—not just as stakeholders, but as co-creators.
Too often, we treat governments as the “last mile” for handoff, when they should be the “first mile” in design and decision-making.
The magic happens when a ministry official fights for your solution in a budget meeting, not because it’s trendy, but because it solves a real problem they face every day. That kind of ownership can’t be retrofitted at the end—it has to be built in from the start.
Four Levers (and a Fifth) for Making It Real
- Digital Public Goods: Open-source, interoperable, and affordable tech that fits government budgets and priorities.
- AI-Enabled Service Optimization: Tools that deliver measurable savings and impact, making the case for budget inclusion.
- Outcome-Linked Funding & Radical Transparency: Real-time data that builds trust and justifies continued investment.
- Platform Thinking: Building shared infrastructure that invites ongoing innovation, not just one-off solutions.
- Early and Deep Co-Creation: True partnership from day one—government, implementers, and users shaping the solution together, building trust and shared ownership that endures beyond any grant cycle.
Lessons From the Field
Success stories like Estonia’s e-Residency, India’s Aadhaar, and Kenya’s M-Pesa all share these ingredients: affordability, ecosystem support, budget integration, platform thinking, and—most importantly—deep government buy-in from the outset. On the other hand, I’ve seen promising pilots fade away when any one of these was missing, especially when solutions were “gifted” to governments rather than built with them.
Our Call to Action
If we want to break the pilot-to-nowhere cycle, we need to do more than design clever tech or chase the next funding round. We need to build real partnerships with governments—starting with their problems, their constraints, and their ambitions. We need to measure success not just by pilots launched, but by budget lines secured and platforms built. And we need to remember that every sustainable solution is, at its heart, a story of trust and shared ownership.
So, over to you: Where have you seen pilots become policy—or fall short? And what role did trust and co-creation play in that journey?
This is where I’m digging deeper—and I hope you’ll join me in pushing for solutions that governments can truly call their own.
Let’s move beyond pilots. Let’s build the future together.
