What’s in a Legacy Plan?
Saniriato’s latest achievements will set the stage for their Thriving Future
In Saniriato, Peru, Legado’s first partnership in Latin America, the community celebrated the completion of their Intercultural Community Legacy Plan in early 2025.
Local residents gathered as a community alongside regional authorities to celebrate. This included women, men, young people, children, and elders, all of whom had contributed to making the plan. It was an opportunity for the various groups to make a shared commitment to support their community’s growth and development on their terms.
Overall, it was a joyful and meaningful time to honor the community’s individual and collective efforts to build a Thriving Future in the Andes-Amazon.
A group of Saniriato authorities, strategic allies, and the Legado team showcase the Legacy Plan as they celebrate strengthening ties | Legado
“At the Legacy Plan celebration, I felt happy and proud. …Since we began working with Legado, we’ve learned to work as a community and to be united, and thus be an example to the other nearby communities. What I contributed [in the planning process] was really heard, because everything in our plan reflects what we said."
"The celebration of our Intercultural Communal Legacy Plan has united us as a community and has motivated more people to join this process for the development of our community."
What is a Legacy Plan?
But what makes a Legacy Plan worth celebrating in the first place?
Legacy Plans are at the heart of the Thriving Futures Process. Created by local communities, they reflect local voices, priorities, and visions for their future.
These documents also serve as powerful tools for Indigenous and local communities to guide decisions that affect them. They help ensure that local perspectives and individual and collective legacies are included in broader planning and governance systems.
In a Legacy Plan, you’ll find:
- An overview of a community’s self-described history, geography, culture, and more
- A community-designed crest to unify the group and express their strengths.
- An assessment of the community’s strengths and opportunities in the areas of human health, education, livelihoods, governance, culture, and environmental health, as well as a description on how each of these areas intersect
- The community's top priorities for action to move their Thriving Future forward
Despite these core components, every community’s plan is unique, reflecting specific cultural and governance norms in their community.
Saniriato’s Legacy Plan Priorities
- Improve our water supply: Improve potable water service in Saniriato, expanding the network to reach more users and guaranteeing a permanent water supply.
- Improve Education: Strengthen the educational service in Saniriato, promoting learning and the transmission of values and ancestral knowledge at home.
- Strengthen strategic alliances: Strengthen the strategic alliance with the National natural Protected Areas Service of Peru (SERNANP) to conserve our natural resources.
Want to see a completed Legacy Plan from Kenya, Mozambique, or Peru? Contact us here.
What’s Next: After the Legacy Plan
- Developing Action Plans to implement their priorities with local partners
- Sharing the Action Plans with local groups and partners, gaining feedback and garnering support for the implementation process
- Sharing the Legacy Plan and Action Plans with local and regional authorities, partners, and potential funders so they can also support implementation and ongoing development
- Meeting regularly to review their progress and reassess their priorities over time
Over the rest of 2025, Saniriato residents will be working through this process, preparing themselves to take collective action based on the priorities they’ve selected for themselves.
What we’ve learned time and time again is that action based on a Legacy Plan leads to outcomes that are more sustainable, more holistic, and more equitable—for both the people and their landscapes.
“The Saniriato Community Legacy Plan was created by all of us, for all members of the community. We are committed to continuing our path towards the Thriving Future of our community, as we have defined it for ourselves. This is the first time we have built a plan where we were truly involved in shaping our own future, and we are proud of what we’ve accomplished together.”