Canary Islands launches a laboratory of ideas to design its future

Fernando Clavijo: “Politics cannot be limited to managing the urgent”. The new center will advise on long-term policies in the archipelago

EKN

June 27 2025 (19:57 WEST)
Updated in June 27 2025 (19:57 WEST)
presentación IRLAB
presentación IRLAB

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, presented this Friday, June 27, Islas Responsables Lab (IRLab), a strategic thinking office that was born with the clear vocation of "tracing the future of the Canary Islands from the present, with a long, transformative look committed to the social, environmental and economic challenges of the 21st century." 

To carry out this work, the Executive will have a team of experts who will work in five groups -2030 Agenda, Responsible Islands, Innovation in migration management, Social Innovation and Rural Dynamization- that will focus their efforts on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"Politics cannot be limited to managing the urgent," said Fernando Clavijo, during the presentation of the project. 

"We live in times when everything seems to change rapidly: the climate, the economy, technologies, migrations... Times in which, if we do not act with intelligence and anticipation, we run the risk of being left behind or responding too late," he explained. 

"For this reason, this Government wants to put the high beams, think about the next decades and not only about the next headlines. The Canary Islands needs ideas, courage and strategy to build a more equitable, innovative and sustainable future," he stressed.

"The objective pursued by the Government of the Canary Islands with IRLab is to continue with our commitment to do politics in a different way. We do not want a policy that is limited to responding to what is already inevitable, but rather anticipates, imagines and builds. And on that path it is important that we have a laboratory, made up of specialists in different areas, to help us design the islands we want to inhabit, today and in 30 years. A laboratory, in addition, that will be in permanent dialogue with universities, committees of experts and economic and social agents, because it has been conceived as an open instrument," he added.

 

2030 Agenda

IRLab is structured around five specialized lines of work that address, in a practical and collaborative way, the great challenges of the present and future of the Canary Islands. 

All of them are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but go one step further: they land those global goals in the island territory, focusing on issues such as the aging of the population, shared sustainability between territories, migration or community-based social innovation.

One of the IRLab projects is 2030 Agenda, whose team develops a wide range of actions to continue advancing in the alignment of the archipelago with the Canary Islands Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both at regional, island and local level.

Among its main lines of work is the elaboration of the new Progress and Dynamization Report of the Canary Islands Agenda 2030, a key tool to evaluate the degree of compliance of the different actors of the archipelago with the 2030 Agenda and the state of the SDGs in the autonomous community. 

Likewise, it is promoting different pilot projects focused on the five dimensions of the Canary Islands Agenda 2030 (People, Prosperity, Planet, Public Governance and Culture), in order to generate work spaces that allow the development of innovative projects in the Islands.

In parallel, a calendar of training actions is being carried out aimed at both the general public and technical personnel of public administrations with the aim of reinforcing knowledge and the practical application of the 2030 Agenda and other issues related to sustainable development, such as guaranteeing the right of future generations.

This axis also includes the Rutas 2030 project, a proposal that seeks to connect the territory with the values and goals of the 2030 Agenda, making good practices visible and promoting citizen commitment from the local level.

 

Sustainability and migratory and social innovation

To this initiative is added Responsible Islands, which aspires to turn the Canary Islands into an international benchmark for sustainability by replicating innovative ideas already successfully applied in other islands of the world. Its first major project is the launch of a digital sustainability hub: a platform that brings together inspiring cases to promote the exchange of knowledge and connect isolated territories around a shared vision.

Another of the 'legs' of this laboratory is Innovation in migration management, a proposal focused on the strategic management of migration and the promotion of intercultural coexistence. One of its priority objectives is the comprehensive care of unaccompanied foreign minors who have arrived on the islands, with special attention to their transition to adult life. In this sense, one of the most relevant challenges in which this team is working is to offer alternatives for emancipation and integration to minors who, upon reaching the age of majority, are no longer under the tutelage of the Government of the Canary Islands.

To improve this care for migrant children, on June 5 a conference was held in Madrid with nearly 50 organizations and social entities to analyze and propose measures to improve their reception and integration. From this meeting was born 'Children who migrate alone: a shared responsibility', a guide of good practices to improve the reception of these minors.

Social Innovation is responsible for identifying emerging needs in the social sphere of the archipelago and knowing closely the good practices that are being carried out. This close contact with third sector entities will be the basis for launching pilot experiences that allow exploring new avenues of intervention and generating meaningful learning. Likewise, the dissemination of experiences related to measurement and social impact is promoted, so that these initiatives can be known, recognized and, as far as possible, replicated in other contexts.

 

The towns of the Canary Islands

Finally, Rural Dynamization focuses on a specific reality: the towns of the Canary Islands. Around 10% of the population of the islands lives in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. That is, almost one in ten people lives in towns that, although small in population, are enormous in history, identity and development potential. These municipalities face very marked challenges: aging, depopulation, lack of services or digital disconnection. But they also concentrate many opportunities, such as rural tourism, green economy, primary sector, local culture, young entrepreneurship.

The objective is to promote territorial cohesion, generate employment and support projects that arise from the territory itself and is done through various actions: training and professionalization, support for entrepreneurship, valorization of local products, recovery of community spaces and strengthening of networks.

In this process of laying the foundations for the great challenges that the Canary Islands must face, what is done and decided in Europe is important. And that is why the IRLab team also has its sights set on Brussels. The internationalist Laura Nolasco is responsible for monitoring and analyzing European legislative activity in what has to do with the interests of the archipelago. Likewise, it is the objective of this project that the solutions that are being provided from the archipelago are part of the future of Europe to give more just, diverse and connected answers to the reality of each territory.

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