SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The headquarters of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands in Santa Cruz de Tenerife hosted this Monday the celebration of the first roundtable for participation, analysis and debate related to the 2030 Canary Islands Agenda, an action integrated into the conferences organized throughout this week by the Vice-Ministry of the Presidency and the General Directorate for Research and Coordination of Sustainable Development and which concluded with the primary role that public universities are going to play in the development of the document.
The inaugural session was attended by the Deputy Minister of the Presidency of the Autonomous Executive, Antonio Olivera; the general director responsible for the drafting of the 2030 Canary Islands Agenda, David Padrón, in charge of the Department of Research and Coordination of Sustainable Development, together with the rector of the University of La Laguna, Rosa Aguilar, and the director of Sustainability of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Ciro Gutiérrez.
These members of the table were joined by others linked to the university areas of the Canary Islands.
“At the university we are going to continue doing what we have always been doing, which is teaching, research and transfer to society, only in a different way,” said the rector of the ULL, Rosa Aguilar, during the meeting at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Aguilar celebrated the opening of the participatory process in the contextualization of the SDGs to the Canarian reality and spoke of incorporating the objectives into the genetic code of the institution, with more cooperative and flexible teaching models where students occupy the center.
It is, he said, “training people for the society in which we live with a more personalized teaching, continuous learning that is more related to the challenges that society has.”
Gender equality, responsible consumption, the reduction of economic inequalities and action for the climate are some of the SDGs in which the university has a lot to contribute from teaching, said Aguilar, in the same way that university research contributes in a way directly to the advancement of objectives such as poverty reduction, access to drinking water or the maintenance of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
In the same vein, the rector of the ULPGC, Lluís Serra, spoke telematically from the island of La Palma, where he was on an official visit.
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
“The Canary 2030 Agenda is very ours, it has had an important citizen participation and from the University we have been actively involved in open spaces for participation,” he explained.
Among the plans of the University that he directs are those of incorporating matters of circular economy and sustainable food.
As explained by Ciro Gutiérrez, director of Sustainability of the ULPGC, they will not be the only innovations aligned to the SDGs.
“According to the future Climate Change Law, which will require tourism companies to have people trained in sustainability, the ULPGC will propose this year a course for experts in Sustainability in the field of Tourism,” he advanced.
The two public Canarian universities have played a fundamental role in the elaboration of the 2030 Canary Islands Sustainable Development Agenda, which will be signed on December 2 in Lanzarote, and this has been the case since the systematization of the contributions in a process that has been especially participatory until the design of indicators that will allow to measure its fulfillment.
“The Canary Agenda for Sustainable Development is not a political agenda, but is shared by all and all, that we are the co-creators and responsible”, indicated Antonio Olivera, deputy minister of the Presidency in the Government of the Canary Islands.
Along these lines, he highlighted the work carried out by universities as a demonstration that “there is always a part of society, governments, administrative structures and the third sector looking to the future, with high beams on.”
Moderated by the consultant Marco Antonio Ortega, the event was broadcast live on YouTube and had the participation of Internet users who sent their queries to the video portal.
One of them made reference to the need to communicate the work carried out by the entire Canarian society in the elaboration of the strategic framework of the 2030 Canary Islands Agenda.
CREATION OF A WEB PAGE
David Padrón answered that question with the announcement of the creation of a website.
“This page will have a link to our multi-stakeholder platform, where all citizens, the Canary Islands Council for Sustainable Development, a working group for inter-institutional coordination, the permanent forum for intergenerational dialogues, the forum for companies, for culture, will have a place. for the third sector, and a space for the general public to send us their suggestions “, he listed.
Along these lines, he indicated that we must continue betting on participation because “it is the only way for this to work.”
The week with sectoral analysis on the 2030 Canary Islands Agenda, which began this Monday, is planned as a program of meetings at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government, where representatives of civil society, business, workers’ organizations, universities, The cultural sector, political groups and local and island corporations that have participated in its preparation will ratify their commitment to the Canary Agenda and its strategic framework, collectively designed to adapt the 169 goals that comprise the 17 Objectives to the reality of the archipelago. of Sustainable Development (ODS).
The goals of the SDGs include among their priorities issues such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice.
The program of meetings planned at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government continues at 6:00 p.m. this Monday with the presence of representatives of the field of culture and of the groups that were part of the ‘Intergenerational Dialogues’ initiative, among them representative groups of childhood, youth and the elderly.
For this Tuesday a meeting has been planned at 10:00 am with third sector organizations and the social and transformative economy.
The week will close on Thursday with meetings with union and business agents.
The last session, also on Thursday, will feature representatives of the Canary Islands Parliament and local and island corporations, starting at 4.30 pm at the same facility.
With it, these days of participation will close prior to the approval and signing of the strategic framework of the Canary 2030 Agenda, which will take place in Lanzarote on December 2, in an institutional act with the participation of all the agents involved in this process.
