It is difficult to live in the municipality of San Javier, or visit it occasionally, and not have coincided with any of the activities that the City Council has launched to design its 2030 Urban Agenda with the participation of citizens. Whether through collaborative walks, workshops, trainings, surveys or interviews, hundreds of neighbors have had the opportunity to contribute to the document that will guide policies and actions towards sustainability at the local level.
Picking up the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (ODS) and in particular those related to city management, the agendas, financed by the Secretary of State for Agenda 2030 belonging to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 of the Government of Spain, they intend to become roadmaps to make municipalities more sustainable, inclusive and with a higher quality of life.
Comment from public spaces
The City of San Javier has organized varied activities over the last few months so that the entire population had the opportunity to participate, in one way or another, in a reading of the starting situation.
The first activity was a walk by Jane Jacobs, a tour in which it was the volunteers who marked the itinerary. The idea was to analyze the environment, identifying problems and deficiencies, allowing oneself to be carried away by what is perceived directly through the senses and contact with other people. Ideas, proposals and information that has nurtured the diagnosis commented by its own inhabitants.
In addition, to collect the opinions of those who did not have time to participate in any specific action, a traveling office was launched that moved through representative places of the town, including the districts.
In order to collect detailed information on the way San Javier is inhabited, the diagnosis was completed with in-depth interviews with neighbors, municipal technicians and a wide representation of sectors of the territory. To these were added those that were made to recognized people linked to the municipality within the framework of the ‘What would I not tell you’ program.
The diagnosis was completed with two workshops linked to recreational activities with different audiences. On the one hand, an event in the Pinada de San Blas, aimed primarily at the oldest, and the sustainable day of La Verbena, whose main protagonists were young people. In both cases, the family public participated, since there were performances and activities of interest to all ages.
The sessions served to open to citizens the problem identification workshop, which was held in the diagnostic phase, and a proposal prioritization workshop, in the development phase of the action plan. “The participation of citizens, who actively requested to express their opinion on those aspects that most concern them with the present for future generations, was especially striking,” says José Miguel Luengo, Mayor of San Javier.
The Agenda, appropriation of citizenship and opening of results
One of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Urban Agenda is to inspire citizens to build environments in which to live that are more inclusive, beautiful and more sustainable. For this reason, the initiative ‘Be Ambassador of the Urban Agenda 2030’ was launched throughout this process. For this, an online survey was carried out and credentials were distributed during face-to-face events to those who dream of a San Javier aligned with the SDGs
Trying to go further, workshops have been held in which Agenda 2030, climate change and collaborative work techniques have been formed to provide more tools to citizens in this shared commitment.
In parallel, attempts have been made to give voice to the youngest by giving educational and participatory workshops at the Mar Menor Institute to train and collect other opinions that contribute to enriching the diagnosis.
All this participation has crystallized in a document, which defines the challenges facing the territory taking the pulse of citizens.
A participatory event is scheduled for November 30 in the afternoon in the Plaza de España in which the results achieved will be presented, Neighbors will be invited to express their opinions on these and a series of activities will be carried out to celebrate the shared project that is the 2030 Urban Agenda of San Javier.
This publication has been made with the financial support of the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030. The content of said publication is the sole responsibility of the subsidized entity and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030