IASC System-Wide Scale-Up Mechanism - From protocol to reality: Lessons for scaling up collective humanitarian responses

The Learning Paper reviewed the System-Wide Scale-Up mechanism, which enables IASC member organizations and partners to rapidly mobilize resources and operational capacities for major humanitarian crises using established protocols. The paper finds that while the mechanism generally succeeds in mobilizing operational capacities, it also faces several challenges. These include issues with deactivating the mechanism, complexities in managing extended activations, and inconsistencies in resource sustainability. The paper proposes improvements by suggesting that the expectations of key stakeholders be more closely aligned with the actual dynamics of humanitarian operations and adopting a more nuanced approach to the activation and deactivation of the Scale-Up mechanism in future responses.