# Vignette 5: Bolivia's life system plan
"The integration of indigenous planning to local and national planning, it's not happening," reflects Patricia Choque Fernandez, Head of Solutions Mapping at UNDP Bolivia's Accelerator Lab. Bolivia ranks among the ten most vulnerable countries globally to climate change. In this context, the gap between indigenous communities and official planning processes has serious consequences. Indigenous life system plans might exist on paper, but they rarely receive the financial resources needed for implementation. This situation is particularly dire for the Kaami indigenous people in the Chaco region, who face prolonged droughts that threaten their livelihoods.
The team discovered that while Bolivia had a legal framework requiring the integration of indigenous "life system plans" into national planning, a critical gap existed: the absence of a methodology that could effectively bridge indigenous perspectives with government planning cycles. "It was necessary to first of all... \[build] life system plans for indigenous peoples that could reflect its diversity, its needs," explains Patricia.
Working with representatives from 16 Kaami communities, Patricia's team employed collective intelligence methods to surface climate adaptation priorities.[\[1\]](#endnote-1) But they quickly realized that conventional participation methods wouldn't work. "We identified that their mindset for planning is completely different to ours, so it was a mindset difference," Patricia observed. Standard tools like Likert scales needed adaptation, from changing numerical scales to using culturally appropriate graphics that represented community realities.
The team designed a process that balanced small-scale dialogue events focused on in-depth informed discussions with digital approaches to ensure inclusive participation (Figure 20). They used a small 3D model to demonstrate how trees sustain the earth and prevent flooding, providing a tangible way to discuss environmental relationships. The model helped communities understand how logging could disrupt and endanger the entire system. As Patricia explains, the conversation shifted from immediate requests like “we need a well' to more reflective questions such as 'what if we don't have water in the coming years – would a well still be helpful?”
They also created simple mobile-based voting forms that allowed community members to anonymously prioritize needs, revealing perspectives that might otherwise remain unheard in community meetings dominated by certain voices. "Some authorities couldn't believe that communities wanted water instead of food security," Patricia recalls. "It was about giving all people the same opportunity."
The insights and priorities generated through this collaborative process were then transformed into three complementary formats: a life systems plan document, a climate action matrix linking community needs to budget requirements, and a visual climate issue map. This multi-format approach ensured that the information could be integrated into the municipality's annual planning process, though integration into the National Authority of Mother Earth's monitoring system could not proceed as the system required comparable data from other indigenous peoples that had not yet been collected.
The initiative's effects extended beyond the initial communities. What started as a local project helped expand the ecosystem actors involved. Patricia explains, "Key people in government and NGOs, along with the program officer, now recognize the blind spots." This approach is now part of a major Amazon-focused planning effort. It is guiding the pre-implementation phase of an $18 million Global Environment Facility project (with $114 million in co-financing) that coordinates climate adaptation work across Bolivia's Amazon region. By revealing hidden perspectives and connecting diverse knowledge systems, the process ultimately made the entire planning ecosystem smarter, enabling more effective climate adaptation decisions grounded in both indigenous wisdom and institutional resources.
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#### **Key takeaways:**
* **Recognize and adapt to different mindsets:** Understanding different worldviews and planning approaches is essential; adapt your methods to match how communities conceptualize problems and communicate priorities
* **Provide new ways of seeing:** Use tools like 3D models and visual representations to help stakeholders understand systems from different perspectives and reveal blind spots in conventional thinking
* **Present findings in multiple formats:** Different stakeholders require information presented in ways that align with their planning and decision-making processes
* **Value diverse perspectives equally:** Work with both communities and institutions to identify and bridge blind spots, recognizing that all viewpoints contribute essential knowledge to the process
* **Look for ways to scale deep:**[**\[2\]**](#endnote-2) Focus not just on expanding to more communities, but on transforming how institutions fundamentally engage with diverse perspectives
{% endhint %}
***
## Notes
1. Also see the case study in our Untapped report (UNDP Accelerator Labs, 2024b). [↑](#endnote-ref-1)
2. This dimension of scale focuses on quality and depth of change rather than quantity or breadth. Moore, Riddell and Vocisano (2015) describe scaling deep as transforming relationships, cultural values and beliefs – changing not just what institutions do but how they think. Also see Tulloch (2018). [↑](#endnote-ref-2)
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