GCDN Annual Convening – Doha 2026

Legacy is often spoken about as something that comes later, assessed in hindsight once a project is delivered or a chapter closes. In practice, it is shaped much earlier through a steady accumulation of choices made in the present. It is not something that arrives at the end. It is constantly being made.

Opening a second day of conversations, this plenary looks at legacy as the connection between today’s choices and tomorrow’s publics – a collective effort of policy and stewardship beyond personal imprint. What gets set early and becomes hard to undo? How do decisions about mandate, governance, investment priorities, partnerships, talent, and the everyday relationship between institutions and public life shape what endures, what fades, and what others inherit? In places where cultural ambition moves fast, what must still move slowly if the work is meant to last? And how do leaders build continuity in ways that leave room for the next generation – not simply invited in once the story is written, but involved early, with real agency to help write it?

In other words, how can cultural and civic leaders act today to foster the legacy of tomorrow?