This study is a compilation of what we have learned about improving literacy outcomes in the course of INOVASI Phase 1 (2016-2020). It provides emerging evidence of what can work to bring about improvement in the program’s regional contexts. INOVASI’s development experience of seeking local ownership of problems and solutions is a key component of the evidence the program has produced. The orientation to literacy in INOVASI derives from its critical importance as the foundation of learning, and Indonesia’s own ambitions for the literacy capabilities of its youth. These ambitions have two sources. One is the country’s own research establishing the existing distance between Indonesian students’ performance and proficiency in higher order comprehension as measured globally by international literacy assessments. The other is the current nation-building vision of the Nawa Cita, to which literacy is intended to contribute by widening horizons and capacity for self-development.