Problem
Design allocation strategies for public resources while avoiding individual-level data collection.
Scarcity components exercised
Constraint ledger (privacy mandates), simulation harness (policy scenarios without PII), governance (auditability and rollback), narrative layer (communicating fairness without revealing microdata).
What worked
Synthetic populations enabled quick iteration; clear governance steps built trust with stakeholders.
What failed
Some fairness metrics were unstable on synthetic data; sensitivity to assumption changes was under-documented.
Next steps
Harden fairness evaluation, add stress tests for assumption shifts, log decision rationale per run.