There is no silver bullet for solving complex social problems.

Saraswati uses systems thinking in researching, designing and producing sustainable development strategies. We also promote a human centered design approach to develop tailored strategies sensitive to local context. 
 
We encourage our stakeholders to discuss collaborative solutions that best take advantage of and benefit the system as a whole, focusing on the relationships between relevant actors and the incentives that guide them. 
 
We design and implement collaborative design sprints on various issues, from Technology for the Empowerment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers to improving teacher performance in urban primary schools under the World Bank funded KIAT Guru education initiative. During the Indonesia Australia Digital Forum 2018, Saraswati facilitated our largest design sprint yet with over 300 hand picked participants to Find New Solutions from Australia Indonesia Collaboration.

We support communities in designing scalable initiatives. Our LAKSMI initiative in Bali has evolved from reducing the use of single-use plastics, to waste management, ecotourism, and women's entrepreneurship. Our approach includes local capacity building, promotion of collaboration with Bali-based partners, survey data collection and community co-design to solicit contextual solutions and develop strategies with local decision makers.

We also wrestle with the important foundations for effective scaling. With The Asia Foundation in Myanmar, Saraswati developed guiding questions and online tools for supporting teams to position for scaling Data for Development initiatives, and then trialed these tools in workshops with Myanmar and Indonesian partners. 

And we provide strategic advice to management teams on organizational development as well as for the design of complex development interventions from digital inclusion to support for elections and political transitions in Southeast Asia.