ABSTRACT
Incremental environmental strategies alone will not suffice given the unprecedented nature of the pressures faced by the earth's ecosystems over the coming decade. To understand the mechanisms and factors influencing needed transformative change and the process of scaling up such change, the Global Environment Facility's (GEF's) Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) developed an enhanced framework for understanding GEF's additionality, going beyond the incremental cost principle. Building on this, the IEO explored the underlying mechanisms and contributing factors that influence the outcomes to impact pathways, through a review of GEF experiences in promoting transformational change and scaling up. The crucial mechanisms influencing the two processes are closely related; transformational change and scaling up can be considered steps in a continuum, with scaling up as one possible outcome of transformational change. This chapter explores the nature of additionality and how the IEO assesses it in GEF projects and looks at evaluation of transformational interventions that are distinguished by four criteria: (1) relevance, (2) depth of change, (3) scale of change, and (4) sustainability. The chapter also provides case studies of transformational outcomes achieved through mainstreaming, replication, and catalytic effects.
