| | | | | | Systems Thinking as a Language
Dear friends,
DESTA turns 7 in April 2025. It has been seven rewarding years of work, engaging with communities, grassroots organizations, think tanks, philanthropies and policy makers. Directly working with diverse stakeholders using systems thinking has meant constant feedback for us which has been invaluable - we have had to constantly learn, challenge ourselves and fine tune our tools and methodologies. Feedback over the years has also reaffirmed our belief that systems thinking has a lot to offer - be it to design or to implementation, to management of complex socio-technical systems or to studying how the world works from a more research-oriented lens.
This is because the confounding properties of systems - feedback loops, non-linear impacts, delays, non-existence of boundaries, etc. are incompatible with how most of our methods to understand and design look like- linear, non-feedback-based tools, silo-oriented structures- whether it be an organizational vision, equilibrium-based models or the imaginary boundaries of academic disciplines. Further, language, where words necessarily follow one another, one by one, can also be limiting when it comes to describing systems, which happen all at once, in all directions, simultaneously. A language which shares the same properties becomes an important medium to converse about and discuss systems. We find that systems thinking has helped us and our partners get equipped with the language, tools and perspective we need to appreciate and ‘see’ systems. It has been shown by research in the cognitive sciences, that we in fact do not really perceive what we see, but rather, see what we are equipped and able to perceive.
Today, the need for thinking in systems is more than ever, as the non-systems oriented management of the natural world over decades - is showing up in accumulated, compounding impacts which are hitting us- be it climate change, pollution of air and soil and the consequent health toll, or growing inequality. We need to ensure that going forward, our learning and response rates - adapting our ways and means of doing things to be more systemic- is faster than the rate of change, which as we know, is accelerating. Do take a look at the updates here and on our website to find out more about what we have been doing. We would be happy to hear thoughts and feedback.
Warmly, Kabir Sharma, Founder, DESTA
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DESTA is working with CInI, on enhancing the Lakhpati Kissan 2.0 programme from a climate resilience lens. As part of the ongoing engagement, workshops were undertaken in Jharkhand and Gujarat engaging partners, FPO representatives and experts. Interventions derived with FPOs in a previous phase were discussed with partners, and feasibility and possibility of including climate resilience interventions within the programme going forward were discussed. A systems thinking process was applied to build strategies for enhancing resilience.
| | | | Climate awareness for children: DESTA and CRY | | | | Child Rights and You (CRY) partnered with DESTA to develop an engaging process to raise climate awareness among children and create local solutions for local climate issues. Building on the success of pilots conducted in April, the training of CRY staff and its partners across India has been underway. The stage is set for rolling out this initiative across multiple regions, ensuring that the process remains relevant and impactful for diverse communities. By empowering children and involving their families, this process not only raises awareness but also inspires action at the grassroots level. It is a step towards creating climate-conscious communities that can address local challenges with innovative, sustainable solutions. | | | | Estimating Economic Implications of Climate Change on RE | | | |
DESTA undertook a study to estimate the economic implications of climate change on renewable energy (RE) with Tamil Nadu as a case in point. This study used systems thinking and system dynamics to analyze climate impacts on RE capacity, generation and economics. A qualitative analysis using systems thinking identified direct and indirect impact pathways. A system dynamics model was developed to assess the quantitative nature of the impacts- slow-onset changes -such as variations in temperature and wind speed- and climate extremes, such as cyclones. Inputs from stakeholders- government, researchers and those involved in RE deployment- informed the study. | | | | | | | | DESTA launched Leverage Change, India’s first 2-month certification program designed for working professionals to learn and apply systems thinking. This program covers the philosophy, tools, and application of systems thinking, helping participants learn how to effectively use these skills in their professional work. We started our first cohort in January with six mid-career professionals working in the domains of water conservation, pastoralism, forest rights, social messaging, and RE. Based on the experience, we hope to improve the design and open applications for the next cohort in 2025. | | | | | | | | With an education background in finance and business, Swati Saxena began her career with tax accounting at Deloitte in 2010 and transitioned to voluntary organizations in 2015. Over the last decade, she worked with India Fellow program on building a community of young social leaders. She got a certification in ‘system dynamics-based development planning’ from University of Bergen, Norway. She then joined DESTA to apply systems thinking in the real world. Swati facilitates an online course on ‘reframing climate change’ with Common Earth. When not mapping systems, she reads, writes, and travels to challenge her own worldview and mental models. | | | | | | Journal Paper on Participatory Social-Ecological Modelling
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A journal paper based on work we did with ATREE in the Banni grasslands, Kutch, where we co-created a system dynamics model of the social-ecological system of Banni through a participatory process involving the community, civil society and researchers was published in the Journal of Environmental Management. The model captures interplays between the ecology and livelihoods with the objective of creating a tool to evaluate outcomes of restoration. It was used to run scenarios up to 2050 to test system-wide consequences of grassland restoration in context of with climate extremes. To support local decision-making, it was converted into a visually rich, user-friendly mobile app through a collaboration with BTN. It is freely downloadable (here) and available in Gujarati, Hindi and English, allowing people to run scenarios on their phones. Through a workshop with the community, it was used to evaluate the outcomes under different ‘What-If’ scenarios. Read the paper here.
| | | | | | Mihir participated at the COP 29 held in Baku, Azerbaijan. He moderated a side event titled Foster Regenerative Cultures Through Transformative Education for Children and Youth. He was also featured in an interview with Sister Jayanti at the Brahma Kumaris Climate Wisdom series being conducted at COP29. See the interview here. To know more about his learnings and overall reflections from COP 29 see this video. | | | | | | Conference on Ecological Restoration
| | Kabir led a track in the workshop, 'The Problem (or not) of Invasives' at this year's Ecological Restoration Alliance Conference. He focused on how participatory systems thinking and modelling with stakeholders could be used as tools to help plan for restoration efforts in social-ecological systems better, using the Banni Mobile App.
| | | | | | Our mailing address is: info@desta.co.in | | | | | | | | | |
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